


The Department of Litigation and Dispute Resolution

by fliuor



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Friendship/Love, Legal Drama, M/M, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-04
Updated: 2014-01-12
Packaged: 2017-12-22 10:08:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 45,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/911964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fliuor/pseuds/fliuor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>We are the Department of Litigation and Dispute Resolution – fancy name for what is actually no more than a department of buffoons, who like to rip people apart in a law court for a living. We have two secretaries, three partners and make one-sixth of the firm’s total yearly income. Our lawyers can take any case, from private client disputes to big corporation settlements, with a top notch delivery rate and a spotless reputation. My name is Byun Baekhyun. I am an associate in this division of gross misfits, and I am about to screw up my department’s most significant case of the decade because of one insensitive idiot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 1

**Ch.1**

They are the Department of Litigation and Dispute Resolution – fancy name for what is actually no more than a department of buffoons, who like to rip people apart in a law court for a living. They have two secretaries, three partners and make one-sixth of the firm’s total yearly income. Their lawyers can take any case, from private client disputes to big corporation settlements, with a top notch delivery rate and an enviable track-record of successful cases.

 

His name is Byun Baekhyun and he is a senior associate in this division, jam-packed by gross misfits.

 

 

“Get the car! I mean, the cab! The next cab…!”

“I would like to but those fuckers aren’t stopping-”

“Start running as you wave!” the voice on the phone starts screaming– Minseok’s never been good at keeping calm when things get urgent: “We need those documents in court a.s.a.p.! Jongin’s struggling!”

“You think I’m not trying?” Baekhyun obeys and grudgingly breaks into a sprint: “Jesus Christ…!”

 

Senior Associate sounds kind of elegant when one says it like that, but the actual job isn’t all that glamorous when you work in litigation. It is an ordinary day at work when you have to run to court at six in the morning for a missing document or a piece of evidence. It is also an ordinary day at work when you loiter around the office with nothing to do and end up emptying the department’s coffee supply out of sheer ennui… Every day in the division is a simple succession of ups and downs that quakes you like level nine seismic waves. Whether you are a trainee or not doesn’t make a difference: You could be a senior partner in the company for the last ten years and you would still break into a sweat because of a phone call, asking you to be at the office at three in the morning. 'When your client needs you, nothing else in the world fucking matters'. That’s the firm’s one positive and universal truth.

 

“I’ve got it!” he shouts and tumbles into the tribunal’s entrance hall, waving the documents above his head.

Minseok notices him from his spot by the stone gargoyle and charges at him with an ecstatic cry of joy.

“Baek, finally…!”

“Sorry,” he pants, “Jongdae was the one who had the file and I had to run all the way to the freaking bridge before any cab would stop to take -”

 

Minseok runs him down in his haste to flip through the documents and skips all clarifications. As he eventually finds the right letter, another frantic cry escapes him out of relief, his knees almost giving in to the weight of emotion. Sometimes Baekhyun wonders how on Earth Minseok even survives with this amount of daily stress.

 

“It’s the right one,” the elder man slaps him on the shoulder and then heads straight for the nearest courtroom. “Good, we need to give it to Jongin straightaway...”

“How’s he faring?” Baekhyun asks in-between two breaths.

“Faring well, until the guys on the other side started to question him nonstop about the evidence. We need a letter showing that the client’s subsidiary has been involved in the financing of the project from the get-go. And this,” Minseok grins at him, “is going to destroy them.”  

     

They enter the courtroom and fly hunchbacked towards the seats at the back, before Minseok deviates to get to the plaintiff’s box where Jongin is. While he is busy, Baekhyun sits down on the benches at the far end first, to recover from his earlier chicken run. His lungs are still on fire and it’s only been a few hundred meters... He is gradually getting too old for these extreme sports.  

 

Minseok soon sits next to Baekhyun as the defendants’ barrister talks on and on.

 

“Thanks for the help,” the elder man then grins, at last, gently hitting him on the thigh.

“That’s alright,” Baekhyun smiles back. “‘When the client needs you-”

“-nothing else in the world fucking matters.”

The younger associate glances up at him.

“Right.”

Minseok just beams with his plump round cheeks and keeps his hand on the man’s leg, using his other hand to point at the opposite side of the room.

“Look who’s over there, on the defendants’ side.”

Baekhyun looks, lingering on the familiar faces, neat suits, and serious expressions…That is their competitor firm, Smith&Harolds’ Dispute Resolution team, with, in the central row, Associate Park Chanyeol whispering quietly to a colleague of his about God knows what. Baekhyun turns around and Minseok grins evocatively at him like an imp.

“Your archenemy,” he says.

“For the umpteenth time-”

 

He giggles and Baekhyun doesn’t finish, because the conversation is pointless anyway and it’s not like Minseok even cares; he has already turned his attention back to the case itself.

 

Baekhyun sits there, with his shirt’s top buttons undone, his skin still dank, his gaze trailing from the opposite side’s client representative to the tall figure of Park Chanyeol in his dark grey suit, sticking out from the lot of scrawny solicitors like a sore thumb. He is always so tall, always so lean and sinewy, and so damn conspicuous wherever he goes. As Baekhyun’s stare lingers, Chanyeol looks up and meets his eyes. They don’t say anything. There is nothing to say.

 

Baekhyun is the first one to glance away.

 

“Baek,” Minseok nudges him with his elbow, “Baek, Baek, Baek.”

“Yes, I am listening.”

A silence.

He frowns.

“What?”

Minseok bites his lips, eyes completely focused on the barristers further away.

 

“I think we’re winning the case,” he says.

 

*

*

*

 

“We won?”

“We won.”

“ _Not officially_ ,” Jongin interjects as the three of them make their way into the brightly lit department of Litigation and Dispute Resolution, like a battalion coming from war. Jongdae has a cup of tea in his hand, holding the huge glass door open for them and looking strangely disappointed by Jongin’s answer:

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“The trial judge hasn’t taken a decision as such,” Baekhyun explains, “but the outcome’s pretty much clear. Jongin kicked their ass.”

“We can’t be certain until they deliver an official decision though-”

“Coffee?” Luhan, the secretary, bursts in from the corner with a giant grin, holding two stripy mugs in each hand.

Baekhyun readily shakes his head. Jongin waves weakly at Luhan and follows him with his eyes as he disappears behind the coffee machine.

 

“That’s good enough,” Jongdae soon continues, as if nothing happened. He takes a sip of tea and they proceed towards the main working space of the department together. “What did the client say?”

“Nothing. They weren’t there, we only saw their in-house lawyers.”

“And they didn’t say anything?”

“As long as they didn’t have things to complain about, it’s fine. You did well, Jonginnie.”

The younger man scratches his head like an embarrassed high school kid. “I could still do better,” he bites his lip.

 

Of course he couldn’t, Baekhyun thinks. He is already a fire-cracking lawyer as it is. But that’s just how Jongin lives his life – as a perfectionist through and through. He works as a barrister on his own account most of the time, but regularly collaborates with their firm’s litigation practice on more complex cases that they cannot solve by themselves. Sculpted like a God, tanned like a bloc of melted caramel, he is cold on the outside but secretly warm like a fuzzy ball of fur, and it is horribly hard for anyone in the department not to dote on him whenever he comes around.

 

A man like that could fetch himself a whole armada of cases to solve anywhere he wanted to. But for some reason, Jongin always drifts back to their little department here, in Lighthouse Pinson. After all, they treat him as family here. But that’s not the only cause.

 

There is another distinct reason why Jongin comes back so often to their department. A Chinese reason with oversized sweaters and salmon pink hair.

 

“Are you guys sure you don’t want coffee?” Luhan returns from the machine with his thousand watts smile and four filled mugs, lining them up into a nice neat row on his working desk before taking his seat again, “I don’t understand. Coffee puts me in such a good mood.”

“That’s why you’re hyper most of the time,” Jongdae remarks.

“It just makes me happy!” The Chinese takes a sip of his first cup and glances up at each of them in turn, pausing at Jongin who looks the most compliant. “Right?” he smiles, waiting for some sign of support.

 

Jongin nods so hard his neck could snap. Satisfied with the response, Luhan starts humming and restarts his computer, scratching his nose with his empty hand. On top of his eye-catching hair colour and dubious choice of clothes, Luhan knows nothing about business etiquette. The office is like a dormitory for him, one where you have fun with your colleagues, chat when you have a coffee break, and have sleepovers when you need to do overtime. With innocent gullibility, radiating joy and an apparent, complete inability to feel pessimistic emotions, he has gotten everyone in the firm wrapped around his little finger without knowing it, and they all gladly overlook the mistakes he makes in the work he hands back, correcting them for him with cooing sounds and forgiving all his typos.

 

He is a klutz and hopelessly incapable of grasping the mood most of the time, which makes him immune to any sort of sexual advance. But for some masochistic reason, Jongin has developed a sort of self-destructive infatuation for the oblivious boy…And that drives him up the wall most of the time.

 

“Talking about coffee,” the barrister starts strenuously and approaches Luhan’s desk with what he mistakenly thinks to be a casual pose. “I heard there’s a new shop in town which is really good and uh, they import their grains straight from Jamaica.”

 

Luhan looks up with bright interested eyes.

 

“Really?”

“Uhuh.” Jongin swallows. “So, I thought…you know, why not try it this Saturday? With me…I mean, if you’re free…”

“Of course! That’s an excellent idea!” Luhan cries out, making Jongin choke. “Let’s have an office outing at the coffee shop.”

 

Baekhyun laughs into his palm and Jongin falters.

 

“What?”

“Saturday! Who’s in?” Luhan calls.

“Wait,” Jongin flails, “Wait, I…”

“I’m in.” Sehun, their other secretary, raises his hand and Jongdae can’t help but cackle at Jongin’s discomfited face. Minseok’s busy swatting a fly that got into the office. Luhan smiles at the only man left.

“Baekhyun?”

“No thanks,” he looks at Jongin who gives him a thankful expression. “Got plans already.”

“But I am definitely coming,” Sehun adds flatly like a cracking whip, and Luhan jots his name down on a post-it: “Sehun, Jongin, me…”

“I could do with a day out as well,” Minseok innocently admits and sighs, half with longing and half with fatigue, “a day out that doesn’t involve going to court.”

“Oh, that’s right! How did it go?” Luhan abruptly exclaims.

 

They are gradually making so much noise that partner Suho ends up coming out of his office, with a stack of binders in his hands, looking thoroughly confused at all of them.

“What’s going on?” Suho blinks. “What’s the gathering for?”

‘Suho’ is only labeled Suho because he has the face of a Mother Theresa. He is one of the Litigation and Dispute Resolution department’s three partners and the youngest partner of the entire firm. His real name is Kim Joonmyun. But no one calls him that.

“Nothing, Mum,” Baekhyun smiles at him. “We were just having a brief little chat before going back to work.”

Suho frowns with worry.

“How did the case go?”

“Ninety-nine percent chance of winning,” Minseok chimes. “Verdict on the way.”

“That’s a relief. Congratulations!”

“Baekhyun came to help today and we had a special apparition from associate Park Chanyeol. Talk about a coincidence...”

Suho blinks and turns to look at Baekhyun:

“Did you two talk?”  

 

It is a recurring topic of the department, this whole Park Chanyeol thing…and Baekhyun vaguely wishes that it wasn’t. He also wonders when it had started to become an actual issue, because to be honest, he doesn’t remember ever jumping onto this wagon, at any point in time.

Chanyeol himself would probably laugh if he knew the way his colleagues talked about him.

 

Baekhyun soon shakes his head and offers Suho his most innocent smile. It’s not much compared to Minseok or Luhan’s natural expressions, but it usually does the work.

“No, I only went to watch,” he explains. “I sat on the benches.”

“Oh. I see.”

Suho pauses, then tilts his head.

“Actually…”

“Hmm?”

 

But the elder man stops and just looks at him for a second. Baekhyun stares back, perplexed.  All of a sudden, the elder man’s hand comes closing around his shoulder and gently pulls him to one side of the room, and Baekhyun quickly glances back for help but the others are now finishing the planning of their Saturday outing. When he gazes back at his superior for explanations, Suho simply puts the folders he holds into the younger man’s hands and opens up the first one.

 

Baekhyun stares at them with the start of a frown.

 

“What is this?”

“This…is the file I’ve just been entrusted with by the other partners,” Suho explains with a smile and rubs his temple. “I don’t know if you remember that case four years ago, with the massive Chinese shipping company that lost seven ships in one go?”

“The one that got sued for billions under gross negligence,” Baekhyun puckers his lips and rubs his neck. “The ships crashed and sank, and five hundred people died in total… Plus, the plaintiff’s cargos were all lost.”

“Yes, that one.”

“I thought the case was suspended.”

“Not anymore.”

 

He blinks with a frown.

“Another cargo ship from that same company sank just a few days ago, near the Chinese coast, Shanghai,” Suho elaborates. “Basically, now the case is turning into a mass tort action with three massive, transnational companies all preparing to sue the same shipping company for compensation... And they’re not asking for a settlement,” Suho insists, “they’re suing. This thing will go to trial. The defendant we’re talking about is a gigantic Chinese shipping company, but the amount of money involved is phenomenal. And that Chinese company is our client now.”

“How much is the whole thing for?”

“The case is up for 7.2 billion RMB.” Suho glances at him. “It’s the biggest case of the decade for our firm.”

 

Baekhyun gulps. Something’s wrong with the tone that Suho is using to say this and he is not sure that he is liking it.

 

“So, uh, why are you telling me all this?”

Suho taps the binders and smiles a little.

“I want to put you in charge of handling the bulk of this case.”

“Me?!”

“I’m sure you’ll be doing the best job possible,” the elder man nods. “Besides, trial cases are something you’re experienced with and I have complete faith in you…”

 

He is genuinely flabbergasted.

 

“But… I… associate…” he waffles.

“You’re possibly our best trial lawyer. I am sure you will be in a good position to take care of this.” Suho assures. “I will help you with directions, of course, but my hands are already taken by another important corporate deal, so I’d like you to use your own judgment as well... You’re free to ask the others for help. I leave you the discretion of organising your own team. Plus, the law firm defending one of the plaintiffs is Smith&Harolds.” he smiles. “I thought they’d be suitable opponents for you – something to look forward to, you know…”

 

Of course Baekhyun doesn’t know. Suho is completely wrong; he is not looking forward to any of this at all.

 

His state of mind wavers between flattery and dawning horror.

 

“But what about the other partners? Yunho?”

“Oh, he is very busy at the moment, I think he has three arbitration cases going on at the same time, and also a private client dispute. He is going to be taken for the next few months at the very least. But don’t worry. You will be just as good as a partner!”

 

Suho shakes him by the shoulder like the father of a schoolboy who’s just gotten straight A’s on his exams. He grins:

“How many cases do you have open, at the moment?”

Baekhyun grimaces.

“Two…?”

“Well, then.” Suho claps the binders close. “Another one won’t be too much for you. Congratulations, the HaiLong shipping company case is now officially yours.”

 

 

*

*

*

 

“That sucks.”

 

On the park bench next to him, Kris opens his can of iced coffee and takes a long draft before looking back at him.

“What sucks?” Baekhyun asks with a cocked eyebrow. “The fact that I have a 7.2billion case on my hands to take care of, or the fact that my firm’s going to go against yours when the trial comes up?”

Kris takes another gulp and leans forward so that his arms rest on his legs.

“Both,” he smiles coolly with a wriggle of his Canadian eyebrows.

 

The younger man snorts and gives him an unconvincing kick, too tired to do anything else. He hasn’t seen him in more than a month, and doesn’t have the heart to be very mean.

 

“At least you’re not directly involved in the case. It would suck to go against you in court when you used to work in Lighthouse Pinson before.”

“I’ve had to work against Lighthouse Pinson quite a few times already since I left.”

“Yeah, well.” Baekhyun looks down at his lap. “You know what I mean.”

 

Kris smiles and fiddles with the opening of his can. “I know,” he says. “And you’re right. I’ve been working in Smith&Harolds for three years already, but it would still feel a bit weird to be arguing against you, or any of the other guys, in a tribunal.”

 

Baekhyun opens his own can with a scowl. He lowers his arms.

“Why did you leave the firm, Kris?” he takes a peek at his friend’s profile, tall and bent like a weary tree, and moistens his lips. “You didn’t have to. It’s not like you were even close to getting fired.”

“There were things, here and there. It was getting a little too much to handle.”

“Is it because of…Yixing?”

Kris just smiles bitterly. He isn’t going to give any answers, but he isn’t about to let go, either. Baekhyun rubs his neck.

 

“Alright let’s talk about something else,” he grunts eventually. “Since you used to be in Lighthouse Pinson before, spy on the Smith&Harolds team for me and tell me everything they’re up to in the HaiLong shipping case.”

Kris finally laughs and shakes a finger at the younger’s nose: “Doesn’t work that way, I’m afraid.”

“Why not? I like you, you like me. We’re friends. Friends help each other out.”

“Yeah, friends who meet for a coffee in the park once a month.”

“That’s better than nothing. Besides, it’s your fault for cutting your ties with everyone in our team…Minseok always asks how you are and all.”

“You didn’t contact me for almost two months.”

“Suho hurled that huge case at me without a warning. I had to prepare.” Baekhyun puts on his cute expression. “Come on, how can you say no to a cute piece of sugar like me? You have to be heartless.”

“Maybe next time.”

“What a cold bastard,” he weeps overemotionally.

 

But Kris only chuckles into his drink before facing forward again, gazing into the distance. Baekhyun muses for a while then turns back towards his friend with a serious expression:

 

“Park Chanyeol isn’t part of the Smith&Harolds team for this one, is he?”

“Park Chanyeol?” Kris blinks. “No. Why?”

“Long story.” he then rectifies, “I mean, no story. It’s just the other guys who are going to make a fuss if we’re up against each other in court again.”

“Why? That’s funny.” Kris smiles vaguely. “I didn’t remember you and Park Chanyeol being a thing – I didn’t remember you knowing each other personally to start with.”

“We don’t know each other personally. And it’s not important. Anyways, if he isn’t in the team for the HaiLong case, it’s all fine.”

“He isn’t,” the elder man confirms, but then halts and looks pensive.

 

Baekhyun sits back. He looks uncertain.

“Something wrong?”

“Well, not really; it’s just,” Kris looks back at him with a shrug, “Park Chanyeol doesn’t work in the division at Smith&Harolds at all anymore. He was fired last month.” 

 

 


	2. 2

**Ch. 2**

 

 

The last few days after his meeting with Kris are allocated to more important matters than Park Chanyeol’s employment status,  and Baekhyun finds very little time to think about it again.

 

In the mornings he is pitching calls all over the place, getting in touch with their office in Shanghai, rallying their network in Taiwan, and gathering information from the representatives of the HaiLong company. In the afternoon he is brought back to his smaller, more domestic cases, dragging himself to the barristers’ chambers in a taxi or overloading their trainee, Tao, with documents that he has to transfer to Jongin. Baekhyun has managed to drag the younger barrister into the HaiLong case with him, but there is still much to do, and even Jongin’s support proves to be insufficient. After a month of investigation into the parties’ liability, and no promising result, Baekhyun finds himself hoping uselessly for a third helping hand.

 

There are none to be given. Minseok has over twelve active cases on his hands; Jongdae has just been sent on client secondment and comes back to the office only to submit his reports or to have a brief chat with everyone over lunch.

 

Suho has become a ninja, so overwhelmed by his own cases that he can barely sit in his office for more than a few minutes at a time, let alone give Baekhyun any guidance. Their team is a mess and everyone is on the edge, waiting for the last straw before the nervous breakdown. About a week after his coffee in the park, he is in a pitiful state, dragging himself to the office’s bathroom with a spiritless, sickly look, drawing his energy from sheer mental power and professionalism – caffeine probably has a little credit in it, too.

 

In the bathroom, he glances at his pallid little face in the mirror, finds himself too brittle-looking to be handsome, and goes back to the urinals with a bottomless sigh. A man comes in after him and heads for the neighbouring latrine, starting his business with irritating nonchalance. Baekhyun shifts on his feet. For a while, he keeps his eyes down and successfully keeps the newcomer out of his mind, ignoring the sound of rolling liquid flowing around the narrowness of the room.

Then unexpectedly, the man turn towards him, tall, silent; and after a pause comes an oddly familiar voice.

 

“Hey.”

 

Baekhyun raises his head, and almost loses control over his bladder as he reels and flattens himself against the urinal. Standing in front of the one next to him is Park Chanyeol’s smiling face, tall as ever and looking thoroughly amused.

 

“Sorry,” Chanyeol says calmly. A zipping sound is heard. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“What are you doing here?” Baekhyun blurts out automatically, and the taller man laughs, flashing a rich set of teeth.

“You mean, in the toilet? Or in the firm?”

“What do you think?” the elder man spatters, struggling to close his trousers as fast as possible. He pulls himself away from the urinal and steps around the other lawyer whilst shaking his head. “Jesus Christ, I almost had a cardiac arrest.”

“Oh. No. That’d be troublesome,” Chanyeol comments with genuine dismay.

“What are you doing here? You’re not answering my question…Did something happen? I thought you were…” _unemployed,_ Baekhyun wants to say, but eventually decides against it. “I thought you were working elsewhere.”

 

Chanyeol chuckles with just a pinch of bitterness. “Well,” he shrugs and heads for the tap, “I used to work elsewhere, yes. Not anymore, unfortunately… I remember our cases against each other when I was still in Smith&Harolds, Byun Baekhyun,” he then says with a brighter grin, “you were a terrifying trial lawyer. Absolutely brilliant. And you probably still are; I’m looking forward to seeing you at work again…”

“Can you just tell me why you’re here?” Baekhyun sighs. “Are you working here or what?”

“Um...Well, I am. Yeah.”

The other man raises his head instantaneously, not sure that he has heard correctly. He frowns, mystified, but Chanyeol glances at him almost innocently through the mirror, looking completely honest and sincere with his glimming eyes and pouty lips. The elder man squints a little: 

"Wait...you are?" 

“I _am_ working here, from today onwards, yes; the legal recruitment team hired me,” the other man clarifies willingly in his deep, unaffected voice, “I am part of the Litigation and Dispute Resolution department, now, and, as such, I'm your colleague.”

 

Baekhyun blinks, feeling utterly disorientated.

 

“...What?!”

 

 

*

 

 

“Ah! I see the two of you met each other already. That’s good. But,then again, of course…you knew each other from some of our past court cases already,” Suho says gently as the three of them gather in his office. “Silly me for forgetting that...”

"I'm sorry," Baekhyun squirms on his chair, "can somebody just explain-" 

“Ah, yes. That's right, it’s must be a bit sudden for you,” Suho smiles reassuringly. “We didn’t tell the associates anything before the final decision was taken, because the recruitment team wanted this to be a discreet thing. Sorry.”

“Oh," the other lawyer coughs, "I have no problem with that - it’s just…”

“Yes, I know. There’s a specific reason why we hired Chanyeol at this point in time.”

 

He takes a few steps, looks at Baekhyun, and clears his throat.

 

“And Baekhyun, you’re that reason.”

 

The associate stares vacantly at his superior, not too sure he comprehends. He glances at Chanyeol, who simply looks back at him in equal confusion.

“Me?” he repeats.

“Yes, well. In a way.” Suho smiles. “Baek, you’re tired, aren’t you?”

“Not much more than everyone else, I suppose.”

“But the HaiLong shipping case is an especially big one for our firm. I know you’re under a lot of pressure at the moment, and the others are too busy to be your teammates. That’s why Chanyeol has been hired at the present time. I want Chanyeol to be working as your partner on the Hailong shipping case.”

 

For the umpteenth time today, Baekhyun blinks, astonished, and looks at Chanyeol for some sort of explanation. But this time, the younger man’s expression has barely changed. He is still smiling, alert, and pleasantly surprised. Baekhyun swallows his bewilderment and turns back towards Suho.

 

“Really?”

“Someone with insight into the opponent’s way of doing things is always a big asset when the case is one of this scale. Having worked in Smith&Harolds until very recently, I think Chanyeol has the perception we need to know all of our adversaries’ strengths and weaknesses.”

“Well, yes…I suppose…”

“Besides, I think you could do with a partner as strong as Chanyeol is in litigation.” Suho smiles a little too widely for Baekhyun’s liking. “Two incredible litigators like you, put together. I personally feel that it would make a great team.”

He pauses, looking dreamy for a fraction of second as he trails off.

“It’s always been a little fantasy of mine, to see you two working together.”

 

Baekhyun cocks an eyebrow, not sure what to think.

 

“Anyhow…” Suho claps his hands together. “Chanyeol?”

“Yes,” Chanyeol reacts on cue, standing up and holding out his hand enthusiastically. The name sounds strangely foreign when it rolls out from his tongue: “Baekhyun, I'm glad to be working with you on this case.”

The elder man tries to croak something polite in return, but Suho is already back on track:

“I am leaving the office in five minutes so I can’t brief you on the next stage of this matter just yet. Baekhyun, since he is your partner, can you introduce him to everyone first and help him settle down?”

“Where are you heading?”

“Oh, just to resolve a medium-sized case.” Suho grimaces. “Something I need to finish off for Yunho before tonight... But I am sure the two of you will be fine on your own. What do you think, Chanyeol?”

“I’m perfectly fine with that,” the tall man grins, his hand still locked around Baekhyun’s, so energetic that the shorter man starts to feel a little shaken. “Glad to be on your team, Baekhyun. Let’s do our best…”

 

 

*

 

 

“I don’t know if it’s a good idea…” Baekhyun murmurs quietly as he waits outside the men’s toilet.

 

Jongin, who is passing by with a coffee mug, stops to glance at him.

“You said something?”

Baekhyun stares at him. He is supposed to show Chanyeol around the office, but the younger man is back inside the bathroom and seems to be taking a hell of a long time as well. Checking that he is not about to come out any time soon, Baekhyun leans towards Jongin and squints:

“Did _you_ know about Park Chanyeol transferring to our office this month?”

“Oh, that,” the younger man smiles, “Suho mentioned it very briefly, once. The legal recruitment team liked him, apparently.”

“But they don’t think it’s strange?” Baekhyun frowns, “the guy just got fired last month. And we just pick him right off the unemployment line without wondering why he was made redundant in the first place.”

“I don’t really see the problem.”

“Suho just put him on the HaiLong shipping case.”

Jongin grins, “What, so you’re teammates now?”

“Exactly,” Baekhyun muses, “even though he just came straight out from Smith&Harolds, our opponents in this whole affair.”

“So what? You’re scared that he’ll show sympathy towards his ex-firm in court, when he knows pertinently well that they are the ones who fired him?”

 

The elder man bites his lips. The way Jongin puts it, it does sound a little too ridiculous.

 

“You think I’m just worrying for nothing, don’t you?” he puckers his lips.

“Way too much, hyung,” Jongin ponders. “Besides, I met the guy earlier on and he’s a very nice bloke. You’re probably worried just because he is Park Chanyeol.”

“Yes…No. Yes.” Is he? “I don’t know.”

“You are,” the barrister smiles. “If it was some random guy whom you didn’t know by name, you would have been perfectly fine with him being an ex-Smith&Harolds lawyer. It’s just because Minseok and Jongdae made too much of a fuss out of the whole ‘Miracle-Baek’ thing…”

“Hi.”

 

Baekhyun turns around and staggers at Chanyeol’s sight, towering and smiling in the bathroom’s doorway. Jongin pauses and waves casually:

“Good to see you again.”

“And you too,” Chanyeol grins, then beams down on Baekhyun without the slightest hint of malice. “Should we start going around?”

“Yes, right.” The elder associate recomposes himself quickly and glances one last time at Jongin who is already starting to walk away. “Um, I’ll talk to you later, Jongin.”

“Yes. Of course.”

 

Baekhyun smiles briefly, then brings Chanyeol with him as he heads towards the partners’ office first.

 

The younger man just follows him docilely like a puppy and doesn’t seem to think that anything is wrong. Maybe Jongin is right. Baekhyun is just worrying for nothing, and that is very much unlike him. He needs to be more mature... He needs to be more professional.

 

“First,” he starts with a smile and points at the three largest rooms within the department, “that’s the partners’ offices. You saw Suho – I mean Kim Joonmyun – earlier on... He’s our youngest partner. We put him in charge of baby-sitting us because he’s the only one in the entire department who can do it. He is also rich like a moneybag so we make him buy dinner for us sometimes…”

“Oh, okay..." Chanyeol ponders. "What about the other two?” 

“Yunho’s our most experienced litigator. He is remarkable and everything but uh, he is very busy at the moment, so he’s not in the office.” Baekhyun hesitates, then decides to just let it out with a shrug. “He’s too busy seducing the partner from the Tax and Employment department, Shim Changmin.”

“Oh.”  

“And he also has other cases to deal with.” the elder man clears his throat. “Anyways, our third partner and sole female presence of the department, Kwon Boa, is currently taken by a three years’ long case in the United States, so she is out of the country. Her departure has turned our department into a division of roaming male pheromones clashing into masculine chaos on a daily basis, so um, Suho is the one who has to control the flying testosterones more often than not.”

 

Chanyeol laughs and it is a charming sight, Baekhyun has to admit it – a sight he has never seen in court, too, because even when they were arguing against each other in a trial, the two of them had never had the occasion to be amused. As a result, he had never seen Chanyeol smile like that before. The lawyer’s smile is big and has too many teeth, but it is kind of endearing.

 

Baekhyun scratches his neck.

 

“You make your department sound like a family sitcom,” Chanyeol remarks.

The elder man smiles against his will.

“That’s what I think we are, sometimes,” he replies and continues down the corridor, looking at the barristers’ offices. “You saw Jongin earlier on. Basically he’s our department’s barrister and does most of the court work for us.”

“Like in that case two months ago…”

“Right,” Baekhyun recalls. “That’s his office, though he also works on his own account, so it’s empty most of the time.”

“And whose office is that?”

 

Baekhyun turns to look at the room designated by Chanyeol, which is the last one at the end of the hallway, empty and with the lights off.

 

“That’s Yixing’s office,” the elder man explains quietly. “Unlike Jongin, Yixing’s a barrister who works almost exclusively for Lighthouse Pinson. But his office is unused at the moment.”

 

For a while, Chanyeol just stares at him with unspoken curiosity, and Baekhyun briefly smiles, walking away and back into the division’s main working space where the secretaries’ desks are gathered.

 

“Anyways, that’s my office on the left…It’s a bit messy at the moment so let’s leave it for later. And that’s Luhan, our secretary.” He stops in front of the Chinese’s computer screen and flashes a smile. “Hi Luhan.”

 

The secretary raises his head.

“Hi,” he replies dreamily. Then notices Chanyeol's tall presence next to him and perks up immediately: “Oh hi! Who is that?”

“Our new associate,” Baekhyun explains. “His name is Park Chanyeol and he is working with me on the Hailong shipping case, so we might bother you a little with paperwork on that in the near future.”

“That’s alright,” Luhan grins, doe eyes shining with genuine interest. “Actually, that is great. I like it when we have new faces in the department... Don’t hesitate to ask me for help if you need anything, Chanyeol, alright? Just come and bother me anytime.”

“Thanks, Luhan.”

“Do you want coffee?”

 

Both Chanyeol and Baekhyun shake their heads simultaneously, and the Chinese soon jumps out of his chair to feed some new paper into his printer, which has just started to roar threateningly in the middle of some photocopying work. As he disappears below his computer screen, Baekhyun put his back against the desk and tiptoes to lean towards Chanyeol’s ear:

“Luhan is a bit clumsy sometimes. But he is the right person to ask if you want to know all the good coffee shops in the neighbourhood. He and Sehun also developed a growing obsession with bubble tea recently, so if you’re not a coffee person…”

“Who’s Sehun?”

“Sehun is our other secretary.” Baekhyun quiets down. From the adjacent corridor, Sehun has just appeared with a stack of paper in his arms, a storm brooding over his face and an apologetic Minseok running towards him to hand in another binder. “There he is,” Baekhyun smiles. “He’s the youngest here, but his work is always faultless, and his delivery rate can be so high it’s almost abnormal, at times. A model employee, really.” He pauses as the younger secretary looks up at Minseok. “Except…”

 

“You want me to type up thirty fucking pages of hand-written scrawl before the next fucking meeting, do you think I shit out words like a fucking printer or something?” Sehun grunts. “Jesus fucking Christ, who wrote this shit?”

 

“…He’s got a really foul mouth,” Baekhyun finishes with a wince, as Chanyeol blinks his astonishment away. “Plus, he doesn’t know what age and rank disparity means, so he can be quite a handful sometimes…But you’ll get used to it.”

While Chanyeol nods uncertainly, the secretary comes back to his desk with the binder in his arms and nonsense grumbled under his breath. He tosses it next to his keyboard, still mumbling, then finally notices Baekhyun and Chanyeol’s presence next to Luhan’s desk and narrows his eyes.

 

Baekhyun makes a small wave.

 

“Hi, Sehun.”

“Hi.” Sehun nods, holding his suspenders grimly. “Who’s that?”

“Park Chanyeol. He is working with us from today onwards. So please be nice.”

“They are working together on the HaiLong shipping case.” Luhan intervenes happily with a pen behind his ear. “Isn’t that cool?”

“What’s the HaiLong shipping case?”

“Wait,” comes Minseok’s voice as the elder man reappears. “Did I just hear, _Park Chanyeol_? Park Chanyeol, as in _Park Chanyeol_?”

 

Chanyeol tilts his head and Baekhyun snorts.

“Oh yes, right, I almost forgot.” he sighs, “Here is Minseok, one of our associates. He’s your biggest fan.”

“Oh! shush, you’ll make him think weird things,” Minseok frowns without heat, but rushes towards them and beams at Chanyeol with a bright grin, “so you’re working in our firm now? And you’re also working on the HaiLong case together with Baekhyun? How come? Since when?”

“I was hired by the legal recruitment team… Joonmyun assigned me to it this morning.”

“Suho did? This is brilliant. Archenemies working on the same case!” Minseok cries out, “If you gave me this as a drama, I’d watch it.”

“Archenemies?”

“Ignore him,” Baekhyun shakes his head, noticing Jongdae, who’s come back with Jongin and an inevitable cup of tea. “There’s Jongdae, over there. He’s another of our associates. And he talks too much.”

“What kind of an introduction is that?”

“I think Tao should also be somewhere around here, but he’s hard to catch…Not very motivated for a trainee, to be honest. Anyways, if you see someone with giant eye bags looking like an anorexic panda… that’s him.”

“You’re going to scare him if you continue like this.” Minseok glowers.

 

Meanwhile, Jongin has come up to their level and stopped tentatively in front of Luhan’s desk. When the secretary smiles at him, he frets, struggles, and eventually gurgles out:

“Luhan, I’m thinking of taking a lunch break soon, and…well, you know, I’m going to head out to the Chinese restaurant next door…so…I was thinking, if you’re interested…I was wondering…” he eventually looks into Luhan’s attentive eyes and waffles miserably. “I was wondering if you would like to have lunch too...”

“Woah, Jonginnie, that’s really sweet.” Luhan looks honestly touched, taking his notepad out and his pen. He writes something down, rips out the page, and hands it to Jongin with a bright smile full of gratitude: “A chicken ho-fun would be great for me. Thanks.”

 

Baekhyun sighs and Sehun lets out a vicious cackle. While Jongin drowns in renewed misery, the eldest associate looks back at Chanyeol with good-hearted curiosity.

“By the way, Chanyeol. Where are you going to sit? You don’t have a room assigned to you yet, do you?”

“I haven’t been told anything.”

“Should we give him Yixing’s desk?” Minseok crosses his arms with a pensive look, and Baekhyun shakes his head.

“No, that will be alright.”

 

He sees Chanyeol peer at him curiously from the corner of his eye, but dismisses it and continues without haste.

 

“My office has two computers and the second one is still unused. He can just sit in with me.”

 

 

 

 


	3. 3

**Ch. 3**

 

 

Now, if hiring Chanyeol was a dubious idea, then Baekhyun is sure that having him sit in the same office as him is as stupid an idea as any. It sounded logical at the time he said it. But now that the tall young man is installed comfortably on the desk near the window, clinking his teeth against his pen in a repeated and annoying fashion, Baekhyun regrets everything.

 

His own desk faces the wall of the office, whereas Chanyeol sits facing the door and Baekhyun, with the back of his computer screen hiding part of his face. However, Baekhyun only needs to turn his head and lean back slightly on his chair in order to have a full view of the younger man’s short, fluffy and bristly brown hair, and his big round ears that stick out like warts on a nose.

 

He does so on instinct, partly because Chanyeol has just been sitting wordlessly in front of his screen for a while, quietly figuring out his way around the firm’s IT system, and partly because the constant noise of the younger man’s champing on his pen is slowly starting to drive him completely nuts. Chanyeol isn’t bad-looking per se. In fact he is rather handsome when he doesn’t grin widely like an idiot. But his height, emphasized by his slender build and his long limbs, just make him look kind of unbalanced… Now that they are not facing each other in court, harsh and unforgiving, Baekhyun starts to find Chanyeol’s appearance rather silly. With that pen in his mouth and his gigantic glasses on, he looks five years younger than everyone else in the department – Luhan excepted.

 

He is internally debating whether Chanyeol reminds him more of a monkey or a giraffe when the younger man raises his eyes and catches him staring.

 

He smiles and Baekhyun produces a disjointed sound that sounds pathetic even to him.

 

“Is the work going alright?” the younger man asks.

“Yes, sorry; I just need to finish something and then I’ll brief you on the HaiLong case…”

“There’s no rush.” Chanyeol laughs, returning to his screen and pen chomping, “please take your time. I don’t want to disturb you.”

 

Baekhyun turns back to his own files, dimly mortified, when the younger man speaks up again:

“Baekhyun?”

“Yes?” the elder man spins around too fast.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” Chanyeol blinks. “I was just wondering about something that Minseok said earlier on…”

“What did Minseok say?”

“Something about us being archenemies.”

 

Baekhyun blanks out for a second, then opens his mouth and slaps a hand against his forehead.

“Oh, _that_. That…” he shakes his head and returns to his work. “No, just ignore him, it’s really not important.”

“Does it have anything to do with the Miracle-Baek thing?”

“Yes, well…” Baekhyun laughs bitterly, before freezing suddenly. He squints. “Wait, how do you even know about that?”

“Oh,” Chanyeol tries hard not to smile, “the walls of the bathroom might have been a little thinner than I’d expected, when you were talking with Jongin, earlier on.”

 

Baekhyun is taken aback at first. But the younger man only looks at him with a playful gaze, and he rapidly recuperates.

 

“You were eavesdropping?”

“Not really, just happened to hear things by accident,” Chanyeol laughs, clicking away. “So what is this whole ‘Miracle-Baek’ thing?”

“Ughh…” Baekhyun looks down, covering his face as he finally gives up. “God, it’s nothing. It’s really stupid, it’s… It’s just Minseok and Jongdae making a fuss out of nothing…not something you should even bother with...”

 

Chanyeol nods and waits expectantly:

“And?”

“And…?  Do you really want me to tell?”

“Please do.”

“Fine.” Baekhyun scowls. “Jesus Christ. Miracle-Baek is the nickname I was given when I just arrived in the firm. I used to take a lot of cases in court and for a very long time I just kept winning them. Call it luck, maybe. I don’t know. Either way they started calling me that, because all the cases I undertook in court, I won.”

 

He pauses and snorts.

 

“Then, along comes a case against Smith&Harolds, where I was acting for the claimant in court. You, Park Chanyeol, you were acting for the respondents. It was the first time we were against each other. And you won that case.”

 

Chanyeol blinks, looking genuinely surprised.

“I made you lose your first case?”

“My first case in court, yes.” Baekhyun shrugs and pushes some papers away from his keyboard. “Anyways, that’s why Minseok thinks we’re archenemies…Very silly, really.”

 

He pauses and watches Chanyeol anxiously.

“Look, please don’t think I have a grudge against you for breaking my flawless streak of victories, alright? Honestly, the whole archenemies is just Minseok and Jongdae’s own little fantasy. I have nothing to do with it.”

“So you’re alright even if I work with you on the HaiLong shipping case, then? Even though I’ve just been fired from Smith&Harolds a little less than a month ago?”

 

Baekhyun stops and shuts his mouth, his eyes narrowed. 

“Yes, I am perfectly fine with you working with me on that case, even though you were fired from Smith&Harolds a month ago, but sorry – just how thin were those bathroom walls, exactly?”

“Uh, I don’t know,” Chanyeol sticks out his tongue sheepishly. “They were just…thin enough.”

“You sneaky little bastard…” Baekhyun drops, shaking his head.

“Little?” the other man smirks. “I was under the impression that the short one here was someone else.”

 

Baekhyun’s jaw drops. And abruptly, Chanyeol laughs, all teeth out, and tilts his head with a hand propping his cheek.

 

“I’m joking,” he says, rearranging his glasses as he looks down at his screen, “I’m just glad that you don’t have a grudge against me, after all…I don’t know about you, but I was genuinely happy that I got to work with you on the HaiLong case, Baekhyun. And I do hope that we’ll make great partners.”

 

Baekhyun hesitates and as he opens his mouth, a knock on the glass door makes him turn his head.  Suho’s peeking through the opening, a motherly smile on his face and a folder in his hand. He takes a small step forward.

 

“Am I disturbing you two?” the partner asks, gentle and soft.

“No, no. Not at all,” Baekhyun turns around hastily and pushes his chair so that he can face the elder man. “Is there anything wrong?”

“Oh. Not really. Just needed to talk to you two about our favourite shipping case.”

Suho enters and hands the folder to Baekhyun before smiling at Chanyeol: “I see that the two of you are getting along.  Are you all settled?”

“Everything’s fine…” the elder of the two associates answers distractedly, before pulling out three plane tickets out of the given folder with a frown. “What’s this?”

“I got in touch with the client’s representative, this afternoon.” Suho explains. “We chatted for a while, and the CEO of the HaiLong shipping company would like to meet you personally to discuss what he needs us to do.” He halts, before coughing softly. “In Shanghai.”

 

Both Baekhyun and Chanyeol’s heads shoot up. They stare at Suho, glance at each other, then quickly peer back at the partner with twin doubting expressions.

 

“So the plane tickets…”

“Bingo! The two of you just won a business trip to Shanghai.” Suho claps his hands. “Congratulations.”

 

He points at the folder and opens it up for the two of them:

“I’d like the two of you to go to China for a few days: Meet up with the client, visit the sight of the ships’ collision… While you’re at it, please get in touch with our people in the Shanghai office, since they’re the ones helping us with issues of domestic law. Don’t worry, I’ve already had Sehun book the hotel and everything. You will be well cared for.”

“When are we leaving?”

“Three days.”

“Sounds exciting,” Chanyeol grins.

“Well, the investigations for the case have been going on for a while but we still haven’t found much to support our arguments…” Suho sighs wistfully. “I thought that it was time for us to step directly onto the scene of the accident and see what we can get on the spot. Sorry for the last minute notice.” 

“That’s okay…” Baekhyun wriggles his nose and studies the tickets in his hand with a muddled expression. “But why do we have three tickets?”

“Oh, well, you’re going to Shanghai,” Suho crosses his arms, “the client only speaks Chinese. I thought you might as well take the trainee with you and let him learn something as well.”

 

Baekhyun raises his head. “Tao doesn’t want to learn anything.”

“Motivate him.” Suho smiles. “It’s an occasion for him to open up as well, right? I’ll leave you to sort out the details of your trip together… Just think of it as a holiday! But don’t relax,” his face falls, “The trial opens in three months.”

 

When Chanyeol and Baekhyun glance at each other, he waves cheerfully and steps out the room.

“Good luck!”

 

The two associates wait blankly as the elder man shuts the door behind him, and an amused smile soon comes to Chanyeol’s lips. He puts his pen down for a second and looks at Baekhyun’s dazed face.

 

“Well…now it’s really started, hasn’t it? Our ‘partnership’.”

“Don’t call it a partnership.” the elder man retorts and rubs his eyes. “Partnership just sounds weird…”

“Accomplices?”

“That’s even worse.”

“You’re never happy with anything.”

“That’s a complete lie, and I have the right to be offended,” Baekhyun huffs haughtily, before cracking a smile. “Don’t forget to go and buy some sunscreen before we leave. Shanghai’s boiling.”

 

Chanyeol doesn’t say anything and simply returns to his emails with a secretive smile.

 

 

 

 

That night, Baekhyun dreams about a lot of things. He dreams about Shanghai. About giraffes. About monkeys wearing glasses, and about Chanyeol and him, pushing Tao in a pram and sailing across the East China sea.

 


	4. 4

**Ch. 4**

“Hey,” shouts the voice on the other side of the lane. “Sorry, I’m late!”

 

Stationed next to the airport terminal’s gates, Baekhyun turns and watches as Chanyeol traverses the road, breaks into a small run and arrives at his level, his suitcase bouncing behind him. The elder associate glances down at his phone and puts it back into his slacks’ pockets.

 

“It’s alright,” he simply assures while watching the other man’s taxi leave. “Tao’s not arrived yet either.”

“Has he not?” Chanyeol looks at the time as well, then glances at the airport terminal’s great glass doors, opening and closing with the flow of travellers. “We only have an hour or so. He’ll miss the flight.”

“Yeah, well,” Baekhyun laughs and stretches his arms. “Maybe that’s what he’s aiming for, you never know… He’s not exactly enthusiastic about going on a business trip, I’m afraid.”

“Why not?”

 

The elder man shrugs, gazing ahead of him.

“Don’t know. Tao just never seems enthusiastic about work at all…Has that never happened to you? Not being enthusiastic about your job?”

 

Without even bothering to answer, Chanyeol just observes him, round eyes forever attentive, and Baekhyun wonders for a moment if he has said something odd. It is always a little disturbing when Chanyeol does this perceptive stare of his, wide-eyed and quiet, taking you in with his gaze like he is trying to consume you with one look. It would have been more bearable if the man did it with some sort of malevolent intent - at least then, he would have a right to feel ill at ease. But no. Chanyeol's gaze is always clear, always guiltless, making you all the more uncomfortable in your shoes.

Baekhyun soon shrugs it off and makes a sound of acknowledgment as he points at the road: “There he is.”

 

They turn around to see the Chinese trainee walking down from the bus stop with his electric blue suitcase and flamboyant sunglasses. Tao crosses the road unhurriedly, looking ostentatiously miserable, comes to Baekhyun and Chanyeol’s level and takes off his shades.

 

“Sorry for being late,” he mumbles inaudibly.

“That’s alright, we still have twenty minutes to check-in.” Baekhyun smiles calmly and leads the way. He raises his arm and waves his hand: “Come on boys, I'll be Mummy.”

“You look surprisingly comfortable with this kind of group excursions,” Chanyeol chuckles as he follows docilely.

“Of course. That’s something an associate must know how to deal with.”

“How long does it take from Seoul to Shanghai, again?”

“I don’t know…” Baekhyun scrunches his nose. “A little less than two hours? Why?”

 

Chanyeol bites his lips and sticks out the sheepish tip of a tongue.

“Nothing; it’s just that…I get airsickness sometimes.”

 

At this, the elder man stops and stares at the other associate, open-mouthed. But behind him, Tao looks surprisingly empathetic.

“I get that too and it’s horrible,” he says quietly.

“ _Both of you?_ Really?”

“Why would I lie about something like that?”

 

Baekhyun rubs his eyes with the palm of his hand and lets out a sigh.

 

It is going to be a very long flight.

 

 

*

*

*

 

“Here, have a coke.”

 

Chanyeol raises his head from his seat on the train, and takes the can from Baekhyun’s hand with a grateful smile.

“Thanks, I needed it.”

“I bet, after throwing up like a toilet flush for two hours straight,” Baekhyun snorts, handing the second can to Tao, who is sitting on the opposite row of seats. “At least you don’t have motion sickness on top of that: We still have a ten minutes ride before reaching Shanghai’s city centre...”

“Thanks for handling the two of us on the plane while sitting in the middle,” Chanyeol chuckles. “Maybe we should have given you the window seat instead."

"What for?"

The other man shrugs. "So you could at least admire the view? And think of something nicer than your two colleagues puking their lunches into a bag.”

“Oh, no.” he swiftly shakes his head. “No, I don’t like the window seat. Being on an airplane is fine…but the view, no thanks.”

“You don’t like watching the clouds?”

“I’m not particularly fond of heights, really.” Baekhyun makes a rictus. “Call it acrophobia…? I don’t know.”

 

Chanyeol takes a sip while the other man sits down on the empty seat next to him, leaning against the window glass. Meanwhile, Tao struggles with the opening of his can, so focused that his eyebrows are starting to connect to one another. Baekhyun blinks and holds out a hand:

“You want help with that?” he asks, “Here, pass it to me.”

Tao obeys wordlessly while the elder man pops his drink open with a forceful sound. He takes it back with a mumbled ‘thank you’ and starts drinking under his two seniors’ vaguely amused gaze.

 

“You’re not very happy to be here, are you?” Baekhyun soon smiles and Tao shrugs:

“It’s not too bad.”

“But don’t hesitate to tell us if anything’s wrong, okay? We’ll try to figure out something.”

The Chinese trainee is impassive.

“Okay...” he says.

“Good.” Baekhyun nods.

 A silence settles in between them, and the associates play with their thumbs.

“So,” Chanyeol clears his throat after a painful break, “Tao, have you ever been in Shanghai before?”

“Never.”

“Oh." the elder man nods. "Okay."

 

More silence. Baekhyun scratches his head.

 

“Listen…Tao, this might just be me over-thinking too much again, and please correct me if I am wrong, but I just have a feeling, just the faintest of feelings, that you don’t really enjoy being a trainee at the firm…?”

“Not really,” Tao shrugs, “the firm’s okay.”

“But maybe you feel that the work we give you is too generic? Maybe you feel we don’t challenge you enough? I mean, we do try to diversify, but it’s hard to give you a lot of responsibility when you’re only on your first seat…”

“It’s not that,” Tao cuts and fiddles with the armrest of his seat. “I just don’t want to become a lawyer. That’s all.”

 

The two elder men exchange a hesitant look with each other before attempting a friendly smile.

“Not even a little bit-”

“I _hate_ law.”

“Right.” Baekhyun pulls back with a frown. “So, uh, you’re not in the firm because you want to, then.”

“I applied because my parents forced me to do either law or medicine,” the trainee says dejectedly. But as he opens up, his features start to soften a little and for a moment, he almost looks like an ordinary young man; even his eye bags seem to have grown lighter. “But since medicine is even worse than law, I ended up picking the former…I wish I hadn’t, though. It’s so boring.”

“What would you like to do instead of law, then?”

Tao’s eyes glow with a semblance of hope.

“My real dream is to open a flower shop by the seaside so I can take walks down the beach every day by myself,” he says.

 

Baekhyun opens his mouth to say something, then closes it again.

 

“By yourself,” Chanyeol repeats.

Tao simply nods, and eventually, the elder associate rubs a hand against his cheeks.

“That’s…unexpectedly romantic,” he comments at long last, “but uh, you know what? I think your parents had their reasons for directing you on the path of law, after all.”

“You think so?” the trainee raises his head.

“Uhuh,” the elder man nods and senses, rather than sees, Chanyeol start to crack a smile next to him. “Now, why don’t you head to the bar and get some snacks for yourself before we arrive? I’ve got some change, here. Grab yourself a Snickers or something…As compensation for having to do a job that you don’t like.”

 

Tao offers a half-smile and thanks him for the change, before leaving his seat and heading for the wagon’s end. As he opens the door, Baekhyun tilts his head: “Just don’t miss the stop, alright?” he calls out, and the younger man gives him a thumbs up before shutting the sliding doors.

 

At his side, Chanyeol is still grinning stupidly.

 

“Cute dream,” he finally remarks with a chuckle, making Baekhyun bite his lip.

“Don’t laugh. Not everyone gets to have idealistic dreams about their future.”

“I’m not laughing _at_ him, if that’s what you’re worried about. I genuinely found it cute. He is unexpectedly innocent, isn’t he?”

 

Baekhyun searches the younger man’s eyes for some sort of mockery and finds none. He relaxes a bit and looks out the window.

“Have you ever had any, then?” he asks in return.

“Any what?”

“Idealistic dreams.”

Chanyeol seems to ponder for a second, but eventually lets out a bitter laugh.

“Not really. My path’s pretty much been decided for me from the get-go. My entire life has been built around the awareness that one day, I would study law, graduate, and become a solicitor of some sort…I just never thought to aim for something else, to be honest. The patriarch did all of the thinking for me.”

“Oh,” Baekhyun sneers. “A boy respecting his father’s wishes, I see.”

“I suppose.”

“But that’s a funny thing,” the elder man says as he looks back out the window, “because this means you’re not all that different from Tao, in the end.”

“No, you’re right,” Chanyeol laughs, “I suppose I’m not; though I am happier with what I’m doing than him... But what about you?”

“Me?”

 

Baekhyun turns towards the younger man, uncertain, distant recollections floating back to mind one by one – sequences of events that he would rather forget: An ugly divorce, the stench of alcohol, and a throbbing fist connecting against his cheekbone in an irresponsible flash of temper. He blinks rapidly and tightens his grip around the armrest, his hands feeling moist all of a sudden.

 

“I don’t exactly have what you could call a model father,” he declares at last whilst concentrating on the city landscape outside. “Law was simply something that I wanted to do by myself, for myself.”

“Oh,” Chanyeol drags out, becoming playful again, “had grand dreams about justice, then?”

“Something like that…”

“That’s endearing. I didn’t visualize you as an idealist, Baekhyun.”

“Well, I didn’t visualize you as a Daddy’s boy,” he retorts quickly.

 

He regrets his tone as soon the words leave his mouth, but fortunately enough, Chanyeol shows no sign of resentment of any sort. Instead, a veil falls over his humid brown eyes. His smile widens, but wanes in sincerity. Baekhyun starts to feel startlingly small next to the man at his side.

 

“Daddy’s boy is a nice way to put it,” Chanyeol suddenly says. “Awkwardly, despite everything I do, I doubt he even thinks of me as a son worthy of him.”

“You make your dad sound like some really impressive figure…”

“He pretty much is, to me.” Chanyeol smiles a little sadly. “He is the one who wanted and had me fired.”

 

Before Baekhyun can find anything appropriate to say, frozen in his surprise and confusion, the voice in the speakers makes her announcement in Chinese, and Chanyeol looks up. He then takes a peek at his watch, behind his seat, and finally frowns at the rolling landscape behind Baekhyun’s back, making the elder man shift uncomfortably.

“What’s wrong?” he glowers.

“Uh,” Chanyeol touches his lips and scratches his ear. “I…think we missed our stop.”

 

 

 

*

 

“You lost Tao?!”

“No, we just…”

“He lost himself.”

“Shut up, Chanyeol.”

“How could you lose the trainee?” Suho yelps over the phone, sounding horrified. “What if he cannot find the hotel or you two, and what if he gets completely lost; he doesn’t even have his luggage with him! It’s…”

“With all due respect, he’s the Chinese one over here,” Baekhyun says, “I think we are the ones who need him more than the contrary.”

 

He watches with a distracted eye as Chanyeol walks towards the edge of the observatory level, sticking his face to the glass, whilst he himself remains well hidden against the observatory’s inner wall, keeping guard on their suitcases.

“Tao has his cell phone,” he informs Suho over the line. “We asked him to come and find us at the Oriental Pearl Tower…He can’t miss it. It’s one of Shanghai’s most famous viewpoints.”

“So now you’re sightseeing instead of doing your work?” Suho sounds half-exasperated, half-helpless.

“It was Chanyeol’s idea.”

“Yes, and was it also Chanyeol’s idea to miss the stop on the train, and thereby leave your trainee alone without his suitcase in the middle of a metropolis? Come on, Baekhyun, you’re the one in charge over there. Get a grip, please.”

“I’m sorry,” he sighs between pinched lips, shutting his eyes.

Suho makes a strangled sound: “You shouldn’t be saying that to me, but to Tao…! You _lost_ him!”

“Well, to be fair, we didn’t exactly lose him; he simply went off at the right stop when he heard the speaker’s announcement and thought that we’d follow...”

“But you didn’t.”

“No, we didn’t.” he exhales. “Yes, I know. It’s all my fault…I’m really sorry.”

 

Chanyeol wanders back towards him, a smile on his face, and he lowers his voice as he presses the phone closer to his ear.

“I will be more careful in the future.” Baekhyun promises. “Either way, Tao should arrive at the tower any minute now... We’ll be heading to our Shanghai office straight after that.”

“Alright. Just keep me updated,” Suho’s voice has become a lot more compassionate already. “And whatever happens, remember: don’t get too distracted, Baek.”

“Yes,” he agrees. “I understand.”

“Great. I’ll talk to you later.”

 

As Baekhyun sighs and pockets his phone, Chanyeol grabs his suitcase and starts to tug at the lock, rapidly entering his code and opening it under the elder man’s suspicious gaze.

“What are you doing?”

“My camera’s inside. I thought, you know, since we’re already here…”

“Stop that,” Baekhyun hits him on the shoulder. “We are not here to play. And stand up. Without your ridiculous height, Tao will never find us.”

“Well, we still have his electric blue suitcase,” Chanyeol grins but complies all the same, leaving his luggage alone. “If he can’t see us, at least he’ll see his own bag. Besides, the tower’s fourth observatory isn’t that big.”

“It’s already big enough.”

“Oh, come on, you’re too negative…”

“And you’re just too carefree,” Baekhyun slurs back, looking around them and rubbing his stiff shoulder.

 

 The truth is that he is too weary to be truly annoyed. Suho is right; he is distracted. And the thought is alarming because it has never occurred to Baekhyun before. Worse, he cannot _afford_ to be distracted. Not now. Not when the case of the decade is in his hands. There is too much at stake for him to feel relaxed.

 

“At this rate, we’ll have to reschedule our meeting with the mariners…” Chanyeol suddenly says. “Don’t we?”

Baekhyun raises his head.

“You’re right,” he sighs after a quick reflection. “Let’s meet them tomorrow morning, then. We’ll meet the client at a later stage.”

“Why don’t we meet the client first?”

“It’s better to give him as much information as we possibly can when we see him… And we can only do that once we’ve investigated the sight of the crash ourselves, which means we have to see the mariners first.” he pauses. “This way he tells us what he wants; we tell him what we can give. The process is just as important as the result.”

He pauses because Chanyeol’s wary stance makes him tilt. The younger man has his hands in his pockets, and a funny expression on his face. Baekhyun looks him over and leans backwards.

 

“You don’t agree with me,” he states.

Chanyeol puckers his lips.

“It’s not that I don’t agree…” he starts, shrugging. “I just think that if it’s firm image that we’re talking about, it would be better for us to put the client first. Show him that we care. Give him the importance that he thinks he has.”

“Yes, but then, we wouldn’t be able to give him…”

“It’s not like he would understand the technicalities.” Chanyeol cuts, serious for once. “You can lecture him on the law for as long as you wants, but he still wouldn’t care. He only needs an outcome. And that’s what I think we should focus on.”

“The results.”

“The results,” Chanyeol echoes. “The process is fine too, but it’s not like we can’t succeed without it.”

“So you think that everything is fine as long as we provide the client’s business with the outcome he wants.” Baekhyun scowls, facing the younger man and shaking his head. “What will you do in case we lose the trial, then? If we haven’t informed him of all the conditions beforehand and we lose the case…”

“What makes you think we would necessarily lose the case?”

“What makes you think we cannot lose?” Baekhyun retorts wryly, feeling irritated against his will. “Giving the client all the necessary information is a prerequisite for providing them with the full service we claim to deliver. That’s how Lighthouse Pinson has always worked and that’s how our reputation stays spotless despite the minor flaws in our track-record of trial cases. That’s also why businesses like to trust us with their issues, because they know that, regardless of the outcome, we will stay as transparent with them as we possibly can.”

“Oh, come on…”

“You can’t just rely on pure, reckless talent and think that your firm will win for sure on every case.”

“I am not relying on reckless talent, nor am I claiming that we will win the case for sure. All I am saying is that, believe it or not, no matter how many details you give on the procedure, this CEO is just going to nod away and ask you for a concrete, tangible end result – that’s all he wants, Baekhyun!”

“Does that mean that we should abandon our core values just because he doesn’t _understand_?”

“If it makes the client happy, yes!” Chanyeol exclaims, wide-eyed.

“For God’s sake!” Baekhyun shouts. “It’s because of this kind of mentality that you got…”

 

He brakes, contrite, but it is too late: One look at Chanyeol’s eyes tells him that the younger man knows exactly what he was about to say. He bites his lips and clenches his fists, feeling like an absolute jerk. The last time he felt like this was in kindergarten, when he accidentally decided to pour ketchup all over a classmate’s new dress. He didn’t even know he was still capable of being inconsiderate like this.

 

The sound of his ringing phone is a relief when it breaks the silence between them. Baekhyun pulls it out and scans the new message with furrowed eyebrows.

“Is it Tao?” Chanyeol’s deep voice resounds after a moment.

“Yes,” the elder man replies and shuts the mobile. “He’s going to be at the first observatory in five minutes.”

Chanyeol searches for his eyes.

“So he can’t come up here?”

“Not enough money for the ticket,” Baekhyun responds swiftly and gathers their bags. “He’s waiting in the Starbucks on the first floor. Let’s go.”

 

He pulls his and Tao’s suitcase along without delay and does not wait for a reply, too tense to meet the younger man’s eye. As he paces towards the elevators, however, Chanyeol soon overtakes him with his long legs and smoothly pries Tao’s luggage away from his grasp. He then drags the blue suitcase along with his own and reaches the nearest elevators in no time, fast and deadly serious. Baekhyun catches up an instant later and waits as the red floor numbers flash above their heads and the elevator moves towards their level.  

 

He feels Chanyeol move next to him.

“Maybe,” the younger lawyer says, “we should forget this entire topic for the moment being.”

 

Baekhyun breathes in deeply and remains silent. The elevator takes some time, but before long, the metallic doors roll open, and he walks in first whilst mentally bracing himself. Chanyeol follows soon after. The doors close behind them, leaving them alone once again.

 

It is Chanyeol who pushes on the floor button and they start moving, with nothing but the air conditioning’s low purr to keep them company.  

 

“Baekhyun…” Chanyeol starts soon.

“Wait,” Baekhyun replies, keeping himself close to the wall and holding the railing with his clammy hands.

 

He had momentarily forgotten how much he hated elevators.

 

Now the younger associate is really looking at him with an air of worry on his face.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, just…” he closes his eyes. “Later.”

“You’re incredibly pale.”

Baekhyun tries a reassuring smile but only manages to make a sort of nervous rictus. Instead, he keeps his eyes fixed on the figures blinking above them and showing them the number of metres left before reaching the first floor. The elevator rumbles. It rumbles dimly, peacefully, monotonously.

 

Then suddenly, after a dreadful, whirring sound, it trembles, jams and comes to a deadly quiet stop.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> N/A: Baekyeol as lawyers is something that's been running through my mind for a while now. Sorry for the slow pace of the story~ Hope the fic is still enjoyable so far!


	5. 5

**Ch. 5**

 

 

 

"Oh no," Baekhyun stammers as soon as reality starts to dawn on him, "oh no, no, no, no, no."

 

Next to him, in the dark, Chanyeol frowns and fumbles with the different buttons of the elevator in hope that one would trigger its mechanism. It is useless. The metallic box remains stubbornly in suspension, dreadfully silent, dark and immobile. Baekhyun covers his face with both hands as he falls against the wall and Chanyeol states the truth:

 

"We are stuck."

 

"Fuck," he groans into his hand, wondering what he did to God to deserve this. A childish part of him wants to curl up into a ball and cry, because hell no, _this is only supposed to happen in fucking movies, God damn it._ Meanwhile, the younger lawyer scratches his cheek as he inspects the different buttons on the board separately.

 

"Let's see if the intercom works..." Chanyeol says. "This way we can get the tower's personnel to repair it for us."

"...I can't."

"What?"

Baekhyun squats down, sweating in his suit, still covering his mouth with his hands.

"I really can't...This," he takes a breath, "I can't deal with this."

"Chill, Baek." Chanyeol frowns, "you sound like a hyperventilating fan girl."

"I know."

"So why are you making a fuss? It's not a glass elevator. So it's not like you can feel the height."

 

He pauses and takes a look at Baekhyun's shaking hands.

 

"You," he tilts his head, "...are claustrophobic?"

The elder man raises his head. Slowly, he nods once, making the other lawyer gape.

"Seriously? Acrophobia _and_ claustrophobia?"

" _Yes_."

 

Chanyeol stares at him, half-surprised and half-incredulous. Baekhyun vaguely wants to slap him and make him swallow that smug expression of his, but soon, the younger man smiles:

 

"You have a lot of problems."

"Oh my fucking God, shut up, I honestly _cannot_ bicker with you right now."

"Sorry."

 

The younger man watches disconcertedly as the senior associate pulls his knees up, hugging them in a fetal position. Like this, Baekhyun looks smaller than ever, and strangely fragile as well. He is aware of it. But though the idea of looking weak traumatizes him, he is physically unable to do anything else at the moment.

 

Chanyeol's frown soon deepens as he crosses his arms. 

 

"It's quite serious, isn't it?"

 

When Baekhyun doesn't reply, he finally turns towards the intercom and starts deciphering the instructions with the light of his cell phone, while Baekhyun shuts his eyes to soothe himself and listens to the younger man's movements on the opposite end of the elevator. It has been a while since he has been directly confronted to his phobia like this. Normal elevator rides had always been bearable in the past, whether it was at work or in his apartment building, because he knew that they were short-lived and momentary. But this kind of prolonged, indeterminate confinement...it's paralyzing. He hides his face in his knees while somewhere above his head, the intercom connects and Chanyeol starts speaking into the microphone.

 

It doesn't take too long before the lawyer makes his interlocutor understand the nature of their problem.

 

"We will be in touch." the man soon says on the other end of the line, "Please contact us if anything happens in the meantime. Sorry for the inconvenience."

"Please be fast..." Chanyeol replies, but the intercom has already disconnected.

 

Behind him, Baekhyun is feeling slightly sick.

 

"They'll do their best," Chanyeol assures, sounding a lot more comprehensive already as he kneels down and comes to sit by Baekhyun's side. "We just have to wait for them now."

Baekhyun glances at him and hugs his legs tighter.

"That's not much comfort."

"Don't think about it too much. Just forget that it's a box-"

" _Box._ Did you just say the word _'box'_ , I swear to God..."

"Just try to forget where we really are." the younger man rectifies slowly next to him and relaxes his legs. His entire face contracts as he attempts to use his imagination, "Just... think of blue skies, and green grass, and lots of trees..."

"Oh Chanyeol, please shut up." Baekhyun moans into his arms.

"...and we're in a park, and it's really sunny..."

"If you're trying to help it is really not working."

"Close your eyes and take deep breaths...Try counting! Think of Suho's face when we tell him about this..."

"Oh for God's sake...! Chanyeol, _please!_ " Baekhyun cries angrily and it comes out like a cracked whimper, awfully pitiful and alarmingly brittle even to himself.

 

For a moment, he hears nothing more coming from the other lawyer, and the silence almost worries him. His breathing is uneven. He is freezing. Just when he thinks that Chanyeol was offended and that he needs to apologize, he feels an arm coming over his head and a jacket being delicately put around his shoulders. Baekhyun opens wide, confused eyes and looks at the younger man at his side, who has resumed to fiddling with his phone, the blue glow of the device casting a ghostly light over his handsome face. Chanyeol glances back at him and smiles.

 

"You were shivering," he simply says in his blue shirt. "Don't catch a cold."

Baekhyun pulls the suit jacket closer to himself and ignores that weird little skip in his heartbeats.

"What about you?" he asks after a while.

"I'm fine," Chanyeol reassures vigorously. "If I am cold, I could always get something out of my suitcase. Besides, I don't get cold easily, my...uh, my _inner fire_ does the work for me."

"Your _inner fire_."

"Yes.” the younger man nods. “I am an exceptionally _'hot'_ man."

The elder man snorts, and Chanyeol smirks, showing his cell phone's blank screen and the lack of network connection.

"Looks like we've lost Tao a second time." he says.

 

And Baekhyun laughs against his will, covering his face and shaking his head. He wonders how he is not crying yet with all the things that already went wrong in this business trip of theirs. Suho is going to scold him senseless when they tell him about this. And what is Tao going to do without his wallet?

 

"We're in so much trouble." he notes with the remains of a bitter laugh.

Chanyeol smiles and brings his knees up, putting his arms over them and using them as a pillow.

"Oh. We'll figure something out, together."

 

The tone used by the younger man is soft, but strangely firm as well; and Baekhyun can feel a bit of the knot in his chest starting to loosen up. He shifts an inch closer, and the other associate smiles warmly at him again. Biting his lip, Baekhyun hugs the jacket a little tighter for comfort.

 

"I'm sorry for what I said earlier on," he declares after a while. "I spoke way too fast."

Chanyeol shakes his head without heat.

"No. I understand...It’s my fault for not being open-minded."

 

The younger man then pauses for a moment and takes a deep breath.

"My dad," he suddenly starts, staring at his polished shoes, "is part of the executive board at Smith&Harolds... So I have always been working in his shadow, ever since I was directed towards the path of law."

 

Baekhyun looks at him, expectant, but the younger man seems hesitant all of a sudden. There is a tremor in his voice when he picks up again and says:

"He is an intimidating figure, my dad." his expression turns sore as he tries to smile. "I was never able to satisfy him and he was never impressed by anything I ever did. No matter how hard I worked, I just wasn't good enough. I finished my law degree with distinctions, but he did not care. I tried to take on huge cases and won them, but that was useless. I tried to make my way up to a partner level, but he never allowed me to succeed."

"Why not?"

"I wasn't worthy enough," Chanyeol shrugs. "Told you, he's an impressive figure, my dad."

"And you're not frustrated by that?" Baekhyun frowns.

"Sometimes... But you know, when you start getting brainwashed since your most tender childhood, you kind of forget how to go against your parents on the long run. I think a lot of my concepts still come from my dad...Sometimes, I respect him a lot. Other times, I get this kind of emotional breakdown and I end up pissing him off."

"Is that why you got...?"

"Fired?" Chanyeol scratches his nose and sneers bitterly. "Pretty much, yeah. I said three words that I shouldn't have, and he convinced everyone to kick me out."

 

Baekhyun scowls softly. And Chanyeol smiles as he elaborates:

"' _You stifle me_ ', is what I said."

 

They remain quiet for a while, letting the mist of the past hover in the darkness as the elevator cables cringe above them. At last, Baekhyun stretches out his limbs and looks up at the ceiling above them.

 

"My dad," he starts painfully, "wasn't very understanding either, if that can help."

Chanyeol glances at him.

"Really?"

"He was an alcoholic." Baekhyun explains, but doesn't look at the other man, the shame burning him all over again as the memories resurface. The chest in his heart unlocks, the teenager in him floats back. "He was unemployed and resorted to alcohol to forget his misery. My mother divorced him when I was thirteen. It was a violent divorce too. The trial went on for so long, and he would vent his frustration on my brother and I all the time while it lasted... My brother had to see a psychologist because of the whole process. I don't even remember how many times I got beaten while my father was drunk."

He rubbed his thighs with the palms of his hand.

"It was so hard to find excuses to explain my bruises." he sneers.

Chanyeol stares at him, and it seems to Baekhyun that his gaze has turned a little gentler, a little more sensitive.

 

"I am sorry." the younger man murmurs.

"It's all in the past." Baekhyun mumbles, wondering why he and Chanyeol are talking about this  in the first place. "I have never spoken of this to anyone in my acquaintances before."

"No one?"

"No one." Baekhyun ponders and shrugs. "Apart from Kris, who's an old friend of mine."

Chanyeol chuckles and shifts towards the elder man by another inch.

"I have never talked of my father to anyone in my acquaintances either."

 

They smile stupidly, feeling like silly teenagers sharing secrets in their school's backyard. Bonding over daddy problems in a broken elevator is not exactly what a lawyer should call _networking_ \- in fact, it is pretty far from anything that can be considered to be professional. And yet, Baekhyun starts to think that maybe this is better than a social event. It is more intimate, more heartfelt. He has started to forget that they are locked up inside a metallic box already.

 

"Are you feeling better?" Chanyeol asks softly.

"A little."

"Not scared? Not nauseous?"

"No." he pauses. "A little drowsy, though."

 

"I could almost take a nap," he admits after a while as he stifles a yawn.

Chanyeol laughs and to Baekhyun's surprise, moves even closer until their bodies connect.

 

"You can use my shoulder." he says.

 

The idea seems bad at first. But eventually, in the mist of all their unconventional concessions and clumsy mishaps, doubts dissipate and Baekhyun slowly tilts his head to the right, leaning down carefully until his cheek connects with the other man's shoulder. The tissue of the shirt is soft underneath him; it is more comfortable than he expected, and he shifts, finding a good spot to settle down in next to the younger man's collarbone. Chanyeol chuckles and leans comfortably against the wall. In his drowsiness, Baekhyun notices that the younger man had not been lying when he said that he was a warm man.

 

"You're a good pillow." he whispers with his eyes closed.

"Is that a compliment?" Chanyeol hums in a smiling voice.

"Yes," Baekhyun slurs, nestling into the young man's shoulder. "You are gentler than I thought you were, Chanyeol."

 

Chanyeol turns and looks down with a surprised expression. But snuggled against him, with his delicate features relaxed at last, the elder man has already fallen asleep.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...and some fluff at last.  
>  Thank you for reading so far!


	6. 6

**Ch. 6**

 

 

 

Somewhere along the way - he is not quite sure when - Baekhyun opens his sticky eyes to the ray of a flashlight and the elevator doors opening in front of him. A man is directing the device straight at his face, blinding him, and Baekhyun turns to avoid it but bumps into Chanyeol's cheek in the process. The younger man falls deeper against his chest, still soundly asleep.

 

Baekhyun rubs his eyes and pulls the lawyer's suit jacket over his stiff shoulders.

 

“Are you two alright?” the person with the flashlight inquires, making Baekhyun blink. Won't that man point that damn thing away?

“Go away,” he moans, hiding his violated eyes.

“Are you two alright?” their saviour repeats, louder this time.

“Alright what?” Baekhyun croaks back, too dizzy to understand the question. “What time is it…?”

“Now? It’s five in the morning.”

 

Baekhyun falls back, processing the information in his head at the speed of a dehydrated earthworm. Suddenly, he bolts.

“Five?!” he screams, throwing the jacket off, and Chanyeol finally starts to stir next to him.

The man in front of them nods uncertainly.

“Our mechanics had trouble identifying the source of the problem, so we apologize for the long delay. But you are safely back in the first observatory level of the Oriental Pearl Tower now.”

“Oh my God,” Baekhyun scrambles to his feet, grabbing Chanyeol brutally with him and shaking him from left to right. "Come on, wake up...!" When the younger man fails to stand up, only crumpling his face and grabbing Baekhyun’s leg like a pillow, he growls and yanks the younger associate’s ear with violence, drawing a shocked yell out of him.

“Get up!”

“Baek...What...?”

“ _Up_!”

“We will lead you back to the exit before opening hours and help you call a taxi if you wish,” the man with the flashlight splutters.

 

Without answering, Baekhyun and Chanyeol shake the drowsiness off their anaesthetized brains, stand up with stumbling moves, gather their suitcases messily and tumble out of their metallic cage like a whirlwind.

 

Staggered and confused, the tower personnel blinks and stammers as he lets them through:

 

“Sorry for the inconvenience!”

 

*

*

 

"What happened to the two of you?"

 

Baekhyun and Chanyeol look at each other's scruffy appearance before facing the secretary of the Lighthouse Pinson Shanghai office.

 

“A lot of things…” Baekhyun replies at last and pushes his hair back with one hand, biting his lip when he senses the secretary’s smile behind her desk. “I’d rather not go into details.”

“Okay...” she stifles a laugh. “Well, you have a little something on your...”

She points at Chanyeol's collar with her finger, and Baekhyun turns green when his eyes land on the pool of drool left on the younger associate's blue shirt, just where his head had rested the night before. He spatters and hides Chanyeol behind him.

“Basically,” he exclaims, "we missed the check-in hours for our hotel yesterday, so we had to come to the Shanghai office with our luggage... Do you think you can help us get a new reservation somewhere?”

“Of course,” the secretary laughs, openly amused now, and types both their names into her computer: "Mr. Byun Baekhyun and Mr. Park Chanyeol, you said?"

“Y...Yes. We came for the HaiLong shipping case."

“Yes.”

Baekhyun leans against the counter, still feeling disagreeably warm. He undoes the first button of his shirt, mortified: “The case reference is…”

“Got it,” she chimes.

 

She then pulls out two visitors' cards from her drawer, that she hands out to them without looking up from her screen, and smiles: "I found the case in my system. You had an appointment with the office at five o'clock yesterday afternoon and are officially fifteen hours late."

Baekhyun cringes.

“Right.”

“It is not as bad as it sounds, though.” she soothes,  grabbing the phone. She then motions for them to wait a minute as she starts dialing. Exhaling deeply, Baekhyun nods and looks back at Chanyeol hesitantly, who is now reading something on his phone with a funny expression.

 

“Tao sent us a few messages,” the younger man clarifies, oblivious to Baekhyun's predicament.

“What did he say?”

“He didn't manage to contact us yesterday evening, so he ended up going to a friend’s house for the night.” Chanyeol smiles. “At least he got himself a place to sleep. Unlike us.”

 

Baekhyun does not reply straightaway. It is embarrassing enough that two grown men like them have spent an entire night snuggled against each other in a locked up elevator. He does not need Chanyeol to remind him of the incident as if nothing had happened, nor does he need that stupid stain of drool on the younger man’s shirt to mock him like a hickey after a clandestine night. Irritated, he goes up to the younger associate and tries to rub the smear off under the man’s confused eyes, but ultimately fails and gets called back by the secretary.

 

“The barrister who is going to help you with this case is already in the office,” she explains and points towards left. “I will let him discuss the rest with you directly.”

“Thanks a lot,” Baekhyun mumbles.

“No problem. There he is.”

 

Baekhyun nods and turns in the direction pointed at, only to freeze and feel his mouth open on instinct.

 

The man heading towards them is smiling and wearing a neat maroon suit, of average height, well-built, with short but soft-looking hair that curls at the extremities. He has a pure, gentle gaze, and a constantly fazed expression that Baekhyun could recognize absolutely anywhere. The associate’s arms fall to his side as he blurts out:

 

“Yixing…!”

 

And from across the corridor, the barrister laughs, making Chanyeol turn his head as well.

 

“Baek,” he comes close, hugs Baekhyun, renders him wordless and liquefied... The associate unconsciously hugs him back while the familiar voice continues to sing in his ear: “It’s been such a long time.”

“Yixing, I…How come?” Baekhyun stutters, and Chanyeol gives him a look, puzzled and slightly bewildered. Yixing simply tilts his head:

“How come what?” he says, then seems to notice Chanyeol’s perplexity, because he soon inclines his head: “I’m sorry,” he smiles softly and shakes the younger man’s hand. “You must be Chanyeol…I should have introduced myself. Nice to meet you. I’m Zhang Yixing, a barrister who used to work in the Seoul office of Lighthouse Pinson before.”

“…Used to?”

“Yixing left the office three years ago. He just…transferred to the Beijing office one day...all of a sudden.” Baekhyun explains in broken phrases, his eyes still riveted on the elder man’s kind features. “Yixing, why are you here...?”

“I work here temporarily. I asked to be transferred from the Beijing office.”

“But why…?”

“Because I wanted to work on the same case as you guys again.”  the Chinese barrister smiles, and Baekhyun stays wordless, unable to take his eyes away.

 

He had forgotten how gentle and soothing Yixing’s appearance had always been and how each and every feature of his person was fascinating like a piece of art. Baekhyun’s tone sounds aberrantly wistful when he speaks again:

“I thought you’d never want to come back to us.”

 

“Oh…I just haven’t been keeping in touch very regularly,” Yixing scratches his cheek, and his eyes crinkle as he smiles again. “I always tend to be a little forgetful with those kinds of things: my secretary in Beijing always scolds me about my emails.”

“But are you okay, now? About…”

 

He breaks there, hesitating as he meets the other man’s clear, vibrant eyes… No. It is still not okay, those eyes say. Three years are not long enough. And Baekhyun does not have the spirit to deal with those old relics from the past, either. Mildly realizing that Chanyeol is giving them both a strange stare, he rapidly sketches a smile. 

“Never mind,” he says. “So…since when are you in the Shanghai office?”

“Not very long,” Yixing smoothly shakes his head, his tone as slow and mild as ever. “I asked to be transferred here specifically for the HaiLong shipping case after hearing that Suho was put in charge of it.”

“You’ve heard?”

“Of course. It’s been a while since we’ve all worked together, hasn’t it?”

 

Baekhyun observes the elder man’s charming dimples and cannot help the look of wonder that comes to his face.

 

“You haven’t changed one bit.” he murmurs before he can stop himself.

 

Chanyeol gives him another muddled look. But Yixing simply smiles placidly and points at their luggage.

 

“I heard from Suho that you had a few mishaps before coming here,” he says. “You lost your trainee, or something…?”

“Yes. Talking about Tao,” Chanyeol finally speaks after a loud cough, “should we ask him to come right away to the office with us? Or…what do I text him?”

“I…” Baekhyun starts and rests; remembers their conversation on the train, as well as his concessions with the younger associate in the elevator. He shakes his head: “No. It’s alright. Tell him he can come to the office to fetch his luggage whenever he feels like it.”

Yixing and Chanyeol both furrow their eyebrows, waiting for him to explain.

“Let’s give him a holiday.” he shrugs.

“A holiday?”

“He deserved it after all the trouble we put him through,” Baekhyun sighs and Chanyeol finally offers him a happy smile. “I think he would probably like it better than to shadow us on the case, to be honest. Since law isn’t his chosen career…why torture him?”

“Baek…”

 

Baekhyun smiles.

“And now that we’ve got Yixing with us, it’s not like we would have trouble with translations.”

“We booked two rooms of three for the new hotel, though,” Yixing tilts his head.

“That’s okay. If he wants to come with us to the hotel, he can also-” Baekhyun starts, then brakes and spins towards the elder man. “Wait, two rooms of three? Why?”

“Well, I wasn’t the one who made the reservations,” the barrister rubs his neck. “But I got in touch with Suho, like I said, and he told me that you guys had a few accidents yesterday…So I think he made new arrangements for you two… and for the rest.”

 

Baekhyun blinks, baffled, exchanging an incredulous glance with Chanyeol.

 

“But,” he squints his eyes, “ _what_ rest?”

 

 

*

 

“Hey guys!” Luhan chimes as he pushes his cap up and comes grinning into the hotel’s spacey reception. “We’re here to help.”

 

Behind him, Jongin is pulling two enormous suitcases, one assumingly belonging to the Chinese secretary, and is tailed by Sehun, who closes the march with his eternal glower, sunglasses hanging loosely on his nose and a hat slackly tossed over his messy hair.

 

Standing in front of the counter, Chanyeol and Baekhyun watch them breeze in with twin expressions of disbelief. The younger man waves back whilst the latter only shakes his head.

 

“I can’t believe this,” Baekhyun drops, arms folded over his chest, and points at the new influxes while Yixing chuckles. “You guys look like you’re here on holiday.”

“We’re here to help,” Luhan reprises, before flying in and tightly grabbing Yixing by the shoulder for reunion greetings, making the other man burst into candid laughter. He bends his neck to look back at Baekhyun: “Since Suho was worried about you guys, he asked us to come and give you a hand with the client meeting tomorrow.”

Baekhyun snorts:

“Okay for Jongin and you. But _Sehun_?” he designates the younger secretary, who cocks an eyebrow and grunts:

“What’s wrong with Sehun?”

“Nothing.” Luhan shrugs, before looking back at Baekhyun. “Sehun just wanted to come along.”

“What about the department’s secretarial work, then?”

“They can survive alone for a week,” Sehun shrugs. “‘Not my fucking problem...”

 

The youngest man then glances at Chanyeol’s shirt and points at the drool stain, wriggling his nose:

“You have a thing on your-”

“Ignore it,” Baekhyun interrupts and rubs a hand over his tired face, “What are we even going to do with all of you, seriously, you look like you’re here on a school trip.”

“Right?” Luhan grins while Sehun shrugs, “it’s been ages since I’ve had one of those. It feels kind of nice.”

Sehun grouches: “I hate school trips.”

“Don’t worry, I have everything planned out already,” Yixing hums very peacefully as he flips through the papers in his hand. “You two don’t have to worry about anything until tomorrow.”

 

He then glances at Baekhyun and leans towards him, taking him gently by the wrist.

 

“By the way, Baek, we will really have to talk about the actual cargos of the crashed ships in more detail, when we meet with the mariners this afternoon.”

“The cargos?”

“Suho put me in touch with one of the guys from the Environment department in the Seoul office, and from what he says, there is a possibility that those cargos contained something that could actually help us win this case.”

“We investigated the cargos’ contents already,” Baekhyun blinks. “It’s just normal pharmaceutical products.”

“I think there’s something more,” the elder man says serenely. “Trust me. But first, the guys from the Environment department need us to bring back a sample from the wrecked ships’ hull. They also want a water sample from the site of the crash.”

 

Baekhyun frowns and feels Chanyeol’s tall figure leaning in attentively next to him. He tilts his head skeptical:

“They think there’s something in the actual water?”

“I’m not too sure, but it’s worth investigating,” Yixing touches his lips pensively. “At the moment, we’re disadvantaged because the crash of the ship was caused by the negligence of the client’s company employees. We won’t be able to decrease the damages asked by the plaintiff unless we argue for contributory negligence, and to do that, we have to look beyond the crash…”

 

He smiles sorely.

 

“Our adversary is Smith & Harolds, after all…They won’t go easy on us, so why go easy on them?”

 

Baekhyun studies him and slowly closes his hand around the man’s slender fingers.

 

“Yixing, are you really okay with this?”

“With what?”

“With this. The case. You know that the trial is going to be against lawyers from Smith&Harolds…So that means…”

“It’s okay.” Yixing says quickly, eyelids fluttering against his will as his face shuts down with the pain. “I checked. YiFan’s not on the litigation team this time, it’s fine.”

 

He pauses, looks down, then glances up embarrassedly at Chanyeol’s earnest face before directing his eyes on Baekhyun again, a raw smile on his face.

 

“I’m sorry, I should quickly get the room keys for all of you. It’s getting late,” he says and swiftly slips away from Baekhyun’s grip.

 

The associate lets him go without insisting, but follows him diligently with his eyes, all the way to the fancy reception desk where Yixing begins to converse with the receptionist in Mandarin. It is only once he starts to feel Chanyeol’s burning gaze on his back that Baekhyun diverts his eyes, and, with a sigh and a dismissive gesture, focuses on other distractions, while waiting for the younger man to do the same. However, shamelessly obstinate, Chanyeol simply stares on, his strangely ardent and insistent eyes making the elder man too uncomfortable to stay still. Baekhyun clicks his tongue.

 

“What?” he breaks, at last.

Chanyeol does not smile like he usually does.

“Who’s YiFan…?” comes his voice, deep and serious for once.

“YiFan? That’s Kris’s real name…but only Yixing calls him that way. They know each other from long ago.”

Chanyeol side-eyes him.

“Lovers?”

Baekhyun looks fairly resentful.

“It’s complicated,” he drops.

“But you and Yixing, then…” the younger man continues, “is it also complicated?”

“Why do you care?”

“I don’t know. It’s just that you were giving him a lot of…” he pauses and searches for an accurate word, “…longing looks. I was wondering if he was an ex-boyfriend or something of the sort.”

“And what if it was?”

 

Chanyeol gives him a funny look, but the elder man simply nods towards the reception desk with a snort:

“What would you do if Yixing was my ex?”

“Nothing.”

“So why do you even bother asking?” he murmurs under his breath, the other lawyer flinching slightly at the acerbic tone.

“Well. Sorry if I touched a sensitive spot...”

 

Baekhyun does not take the time to reply straightway. He waits until Chanyeol chooses to face forward once more before dropping the defensive stance, and finally relaxing his rigid shoulders. The air between them is heavy with lurking tension. The younger lawyer soon takes a long breath without looking at him.

 

“Should I just take it as Yixing being your ex, then?”

“Yixing isn’t my ex.”

“An unrequited love, then.”

“Chanyeol, you’re starting to sound like an immature jerk.” Baekhyun snaps before he can control himself. “Stop. You’re talking way too much and it is getting on my nerves. Be quiet.”

As he says those words, Jongin drifts in with his tie over his shoulder:

 

“Baek, the Environment department had a message…”

 

He stops when he sees their matching expressions of annoyance, and turns on his heels.

 

“Never mind, I’ll talk to you later.”

 

Baekhyun watches him leave and begins to feel a little ridiculous. Irritation and guilt do not mix well together. It is like going to court with a really strong argument, but being extremely reluctant to use it because it is not even remotely ethical. Baekhyun has always praised himself to be a professional man; he is professionally smart, professionally outgoing, professionally funny and even professionally cute if needs be. A professional man does not let his past meddle with his present, does not let passion override reason, and most importantly, does not let his heart rule his head. So what is it with Chanyeol, that he always manages to play and tweak all his most sensitive strings?

 

Yixing breaks the train of his feverish thoughts with the keys to their hotel room:

 

“Chanyeol and you should share a room,” the Chinese barrister says with an innocent smile. “Luhan and Sehun will sleep in another room with Jongin. If Tao wants to join us sometime along the trip, he’ll stay with you guys.”

“And what about you?” Baekhyun inquires with a frown.

“I have my own place,” Yixing smiles, already back to his own placid self. “Now, should we get you guys settled?”

 

With an obedient nod, Baekhyun tries to reach out for his suitcase, but his hand is only a second too slow for Chanyeol’s, who seized both his own luggage and Baekhyun’s in his grip, and is now making his way down the reception hall towards the elevators. Baekhyun follows, empty-handed, his throat thirsty and dry. He watches Chanyeol’s lean back as he walks, watches the folds of his blue shirt crease and stretch with every stride, watches every inch of skin and every woolly tuft of hair.

 

He startles himself a little when he surprises himself hoping, very secretly, for the younger man’s earlier gush of curiosity to have been a spurt of jealousy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> N/A: Thank you very much for reading and for leaving kudos!


	7. 7

**Ch. 7**

Painful heat. Throbbing tightness. Release that lurks at the corner but refuses to set him free, leaving him to writhe in a conundrum of discomfort. He burns and opens his mouth, thrashing about as he fights the sweltering sensation in his body and a warped moan escapes, mounting through the oppressing air. The caresses make him whimper; the fingers make him squirm, but he cannot seem to put a name on them. Rapidly, he throws his head back, his arms pulled over his head as one name rolls off his tongue spontaneously:

 

“Chan – !”

 

Baekhyun convulses and opens his eyes, sweating profusely as he blinks at the snow white ceiling above his head, the bright chandelier, and the sound of a tooting alarm clock next to his ear. The first wave of confusion gone, he realizes that he is still in their hotel room in Shanghai, and there is now an empty spot next to him on the double bed, where a pair of pajamas lie crumpled and abandoned. Their owner is nowhere to be seen.

 

He breathes heavily, then looks down at his wet and shamefully ruffled pants before blushing furiously,  as he flattens himself against the bed.

 

“Fuck,” he swears, completely and chillingly awake now, extending an arm to slam the alarm clock shut. “Oh, fuck, fuck, fuck.”

 

This is such terrible timing... Such terrible, terrible timing for a wet dream – Dear God. Cursing himself internally, he claws for the nearest piece of clothing and nearly wrenches the night desk’s drawer off its hinges with the violence of his effort. He spins at the sound of the bathroom door unlocking, and almost falls off the bed when Chanyeol enters the sleeping area in nothing but his bathrobe, looking very puzzled and strangely...attractive.

 

The younger man stares and Baekhyun unbends, on his knees, his pillow covering his crotch area.

 

“Slept well?” he splutters, still hating himself for his hormones’ deplorable timing and the sheet of sweat that betrays him like neon signs.

 

Chanyeol looks down at him for what seems to last for ages, and then flushes, to the elder man’s greatest horror.

“It’s okay,” he finally says, “I woke up too early, that’s all.”

Baekhyun stammers, cold with fear: “Did I wake you up?”

“Oh, no…” the other man shakes his head. “We just went to bed very early yesterday, and with the new mattress and all, I had trouble getting a good rest.”

“Oh. Right…” Baekhyun laughs coldly. “Not very comfortable, is it?”

“No. Not really.”

 

He nods with relief and hurriedly reaches for new trousers, kicking his dirty pants to one side of the bed. Maybe Chanyeol has not realized anything after all; and the thought reassures him a little as he wipes off the sweat on his neck and jumps into his clothes. Now, if he could just get to the bathroom…

 

“The new bed was one thing,” Chanyeol suddenly continues, “but there was also the fact that…you know...you were…”

He trails off and Baekhyun turns around with a frown: “I was what?”

“You were… _whimpering_. In your sleep.”

If Chanyeol is embarrassed, Baekhyun thinks he could be buried six feet deep in humiliation by now.

“Well, I,” he starts, feeling a lot less aroused and a lot more mortified already, “I am deeply sorry about that; I guess I wasn’t aware of my… loud sleeping habits.”

“No, that’s not what I meant. It wasn’t loud,” Chanyeol tries to explicate, “it was just kind of like a …a small dog yapping.”

“A _small dog yapping_?” Baekhyun echoes.

“Alright, not a small dog yapping, I mean…it was a high-pitched yelping sound.” he sighs: “Look, I just have very sensitive sleep and you were whimpering a lot, okay.”

“Well, that sure didn’t stop you from sleeping like a log, back in the elevator.”

“You weren’t whimpering in the elevator.”

“Oh yeah, I wasn’t?”

“No, you were snoring.”

“Just great...”

 

With a sigh, Baekhyun snatches his trousers and yanks them on, concealing his mortification by facing the window outside.

 

It is a calamity that Tao had not decided to rejoin them after all… Because of that, their suite had just been occupied by the two of them, and only the two of them, for the entire evening yesterday – something that Baekhyun does not feel so keen on repeating. After their team’s afternoon visit to the mariners, Jongin and Yixing had first shipped the collected samples back to the Seoul office, then the six of them, together with Luhan and Sehun, had dined at a local restaurant before returning to their separate rooms for the night. Baekhyun remembers Yixing’s smiling face as he waved them goodbye at the hotel door and told them he would come to pick them up in the morning.

 

It is a wonder that the man had not changed after all this time.

 

But then Baekhyun also remembers that Chanyeol had been studying him and Yixing like the thesaurus for the entire time they were together; and his frown deepens. The younger associate has not asked anything inappropriate again since yesterday’s incident, but it had not stopped Baekhyun from setting up his defenses, and as a result, their conversations had been broken at best. This wet dream is the last stroke of embarrassment on this entire canvas of discomfort… and whoever’s name he was screaming as he woke up, he hopes that Chanyeol has not heard a single letter of it.

 

“Maybe you should get dressed,” he tells the other man whist buttoning his shirt. “We’ll miss breakfast otherwise.”

 

He pauses when he notices that the younger man is not budging, and is staring instead at the spoiled underwear that the senior associate has just discarded on the floor. With a violent kick, Baekhyun sends the pants flying behind the sofa.

 

“ _Get dressed_ ,” he commands.

 

Chanyeol finally stirs from his spot near the bathroom door and starts to scratch his head as he walks around the room, doing things that – to the elder man’s misery – get him nowhere close to being dressed. Baekhyun clutches the shirt and trousers from his colleague’s suitcase and flings them into the younger man’s arms. He is searching for his own tie when he hears the other man mumble something incoherently behind his back.

 

“What?”

“I said I’m sorry.” Chanyeol says louder before looking down. “About yesterday.”

Baekhyun stares blankly.

“If you’re thinking about…”

“Yes, I never apologized for that.”

“And you don’t have to,” the elder man snorts, flipping through the clothes in his suitcase for his tie. “It was a silly conversation altogether and I don’t think we need to mention it again. It’s not relevant to the job we have to do.”

“Don’t you think we should straighten things out?”

“Why?” Baekhyun cocks an eyebrow. “It’s not _important_.”  

 

Chanyeol drills holes into him with his eyes.

 

“It matters to me, though.”

 

Baekhyun simply glances at him and continues his search, breathing in deeply when he cannot seem to find that damn tie anywhere. It is Chanyeol who picks it up from behind the coffee table and comes up, smoothing it out with his slender fingers before passing it around the elder man’s neck. Baekhyun’s breathing stops. He takes a step back when Chanyeol tries to tie it for him, but doesn’t fight when the other man draws near a second time, his big hands maneuvering the tie with ease as he finishes the knot.

 

“There,”  the younger man declares once the job is done.

 

Baekhyun mumbles his thanks. But Chanyeol remains in his way, awfully encumbering with his smooth skin put on display under that revealing bathrobe, and soon the elder man has to step sideways, slipping towards the lavatory with pursed lips.

 

“Get dressed,” he hisses one last time before scampering away.

 

Chanyeol does not reply.

 

But as Baekhyun disappears into the bathroom and slams the door shut, he smiles at last and laughs a little.

 

 

*

*

 

 

Baekhyun ducks his head and slips into the taxi.

“I’ll take this one, thanks.” He nods towards Yixing, who smiles and nods back.

“See you there,” the barrister replies.

Baekhyun smiles and glides into the backseat. He is surprised, however, when it is not Chanyeol who slips in next to him and shuts the taxi door, but Jongin instead.

 

The associate blinks whilst the younger man attaches his seatbelt.

 

“Hey.”

“Hey…” Jongin greets back in a breath, glancing at him: “‘Will go to the client meeting with you if you don’t mind.”

“Sure thing, you do as you want…”

“Chanyeol’s in the second cab, if you’re wondering.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

Jongin smirks and soon, Baekhyun rolls his eyes.

“Look, if you’re thinking that there’s something going on...”

“I didn’t say anything,” Jongin retorts on the beat, fumbling in his pocket. “By the way, I wanted to talk to you about this yesterday, but didn’t get the chance since you looked a little...undisposed... Here’s the thing: We have a message from the Environment department. Kyungsoo got back to me about the HaiLong case and he’s agreed to be our main link in the Environment department for the case.”

 

Baekhyun turns to look fully at him.

 

“So he’s going to be in our team?”

“That’s right.”

“Perfect.”

“And he is asking you and Chanyeol to go and see him right away when you get back to Seoul. He wants to discuss his idea with you two first and show you what he has discovered…”

“So he is the one who had this whole idea about something being in the water…”

“Yeah, that’s him.” Jongin smiles a little as the taxi enters the highway. “I am not very sure what he means by that though… It’s sea water. I don’t understand what he expects to find by taking a sea water sample and investigating it, when the crash itself happened months ago, but you know him. He’s a little quirky with all those experiments of his…”

He pauses.

“Expensive experiments, at that.”

“We charge high enough,” Baekhyun snorts pleasantly, “That compensates.”

 

Jongin laughs as the taxi drives on.

 

 

 

On site, Baekhyun is the first to get out of the car.

 

“Baek,” Jongin calls as he climbs up the stairs to the hotel entrance.  The elder man turns around.

“Yes?”

“Luhan and Yixing will explain to the client why we had to reschedule the meeting to today. Let them do the socializing bit.”

“I know. I wasn’t going to interfere.”

“And also,” Jongin starts again: “your collar’s wrinkled.”

 

Baekhyun lowers his chin and tends to the problem under his friend’s attentive gaze.

 

“You know that if there’s really something between you and Chanyeol, you should just go for it, right?”

The associate raises his head.

“There’s nothing between-”

One look from the younger man prevents him from finishing his sentence.

 

He bites his lips, watching vacantly as the second and third taxis park in front of the marble stairway. One of the doors soon opens and Chanyeol’s tall figure comes out, talking to the taxi driver through the open window.

 

“I don’t think it’s very appropriate for me to be attracted to him.” he tells Jongin at last.

“You mean you’re in denial.”

“No, I just think it’s unprofessional,” Baekhyun murmurs, “and I also think that Chanyeol and I have much more important things to do than to romance each other with flowers and empty words. It’s a RMB 7.2 billion case we’re talking about, Jongin. We can’t laugh with this.”

 

Jongin observes him quietly.

“I’m just scared that you will regret this later on.”

“That’s my own business,” Baekhyun scoffs without resentment, before smiling a little to soften the mood, “Besides, don’t you have things to take care of yourself? That Luhan isn’t going to be seduced on his own, you know.”

“That’s a completely different issue…” Jongin mumbles.

“Did you sleep on the sofa-bed yesterday?” the elder man smiles amusedly. “Sehun hogged the bed with Luhan before you could even move, didn’t he?”

“He was really fast…”

“You should just invite him out for a movie. Or just move on altogether, it’s been so long.”

 

Jongin shakes his head and looks glum for a moment.

 

“It’s not easy to move on from Luhan.” he says seriously after a while. “Even more so when I don’t want to, either.”

 

Baekhyun contemplates the younger man thoughtfully and looks down when his phone vibrates in his pocket. He flicks it open to see a message from Kris, but chucks it back into his trousers without reading when Yixing and the others arrive at their level.

“We’re fifteen minutes in advance,” Yixing declares evenly as he peeks at his watch and leads the way into the hotel, “but the client might be here and waiting already. We should have a look.”

“And what if he hasn’t arrived?”

“Well then, we’ll just wait in the lounge,” the Chinese man says and then stops, looking ahead, “but that won’t happen because there he is.”

Baekhyun and Jongin raise their head. And as the associate stops and stares, Chanyeol bumps into him from behind, holding him by the arm to avoid losing his balance.

 

The client is taller and younger than Baekhyun had expected it; and much more flamboyantly dressed too, accompanied by what seems to be a personal translator and a secretary...For the CEO of a multinational shipping company in distress, he looks more like an angry rock-star.

 

A _very_ angry rock-star.

 

“Good morning,” Yixing starts with an extended hand, “Mr. Zhou, we are the litigation team from…”

“Oh, no. This is not what you should be saying,” the client interrupts with a smile, but icily. “Right? I had to cancel all my other appointments just for the sake of this meeting; a meeting that should have happened twenty-four hours ago to start with.”

The barrister falters.

“We’re deeply sorry.”

“I hope you are aware that it is not because you are a bunch of lawyers that you’re entitled to do whatever you like. You are the ones going to court and getting that case settled, yes, but I’m the one paying the cash in the end. I expect more punctuality from you lot in the future.”

Yixing lowers his head politely, and Baekhyun flinches at the sight.

“We had a small incident the night before yesterday,” the barrister tries to explain. “Our associates were in a pinch that was out of their control…”

“Oh, please. If you’re going to start making petty excuses...”

“It was our fault,” Baekhyun cuts, his tone calm and firm. “It won’t happen again. We are sorry.”

 

The client turns to look at him, smiling.

“Mr. Byun Baekhyun?” he articulates. “Head of the team?”

“Yes.”

“Head of the team, and responsible for your team’s failure,” he smiles wryly. “Good job.”

 

Baekhyun steadies himself, gazing at the wall whilst taking a slow, deep breath. He can hear Chanyeol shifting on his feet behind him, but cannot turn around. The client soon picks up again with a calmer tone:

“Since you’ve felt that it was absolutely necessary to reschedule our consultation, I assume that you’ve at least used your time wisely and that you’ve found a solution to our current dilemma. So how exactly are you going to save my company?”

Baekhyun bites his lip.

“This case is a mass tort action one, so the crash in Taiwan from four years ago will have to be considered first. But-”

“ _But_ we have established that it was not going to be an issue because there was a force majeure clause in the shipping contract four years ago.” the CEO clicks his tongue. “Yes, I knew that much. So the second crash, the recent one, is the problematic one."

"Yes."

"Because my employees were negligent and there were no applicable exclusion clause. Alright. How do I avoid the damages?”

Baekhyun instantly tenses up. He can feel Chanyeol’s gaze on him, Yixing’s expectant stance, Jongin’s uneasiness…Even Luhan and Sehun seem to be more alert and more diffident as they listen close. At last, Baekhyun lifts his head and tries to maintain a courteous tone.

 

“We are going to argue for contributory negligence to diminish the amount of damages asked by the plaintiff to a strict minimum.”

The client finally seems to concentrate.

“Alright. How?”

“Well, it’s still under investigation…” he says, “but we have been in touch with the mariners yesterday and have an idea that there could be something in the water, at the site of the crash, which could serve us as evidence to build our argument around. We’ve referred some samples back to our headquarters so it is only a matter of time before they can deliver a concrete answer-”

"A matter of time?"

"Well, I mean, it shouldn't take very long, but..."

“I can’t believe this.” the client scoffs. “You haven’t found anything concrete yet, then.”

“But we do have an idea–”

“An idea based on nothing!” the man exclaims, incredulous. “Sea water? Sea water moves with the current! What do you possibly expect to find in sea water when the accident itself has happened months ago?” he squints. “Is that really all you have, Mr. Byun? And it is for this kind of information that you’ve delayed an important session with your client?”

“I…”

“You are completely useless, Mr. Byun!”

 

Baekhyun closes his mouth, biting his lip to restrain himself from dropping an acerbic comeback. Something throbs in him, something he has to muster all his self-control just to keep in. But he does, and the emotion burns him from the inside.

 

It is a liberation when Luhan speaks up out of the blue.

 

“Mr. Zhou, you have a small...something on your shoulder, it must have fallen from that flower vase over there.”

The man glances down at his suit, initial anger leaving place for surprise and uncertainty. Luhan extends a hand and flicks the leaf off for him, flashing a friendly smile.

“Mr. Zhou, you’re from Beijing, right? I heard your accent when you were speaking.”

“What about it?”

“I’m a Beijing man too.” Luhan grins, so bright and haphazard that their client loses all incentive to frown. “Why don’t we sit down in the lounge and talk about business comfortably? We’ll do our best to give you a full picture of the options we currently have...Let’s have a seat. Please.”

 

*

*

*

 

“I’m sorry, Baekhyun.” Yixing implores when they get back to the hotel that night. “I’m really sorry.”

But Baekhyun frowns, shaking his head.

“Why are you sorry…?”

“Because…it wasn’t your fault. CEOs in the mainland tend to be very blunt all the time. They have to, it’s the only way for them to get anything done within their deadlines. He was doing it by habit, it wasn’t because of you…”

“I know,” the associate affirms, a hand on the door handle of the main entrance. “You don’t have to explain, Yixing. I really know.”

“We just weren’t used to the tone,” Jongin clarifies to the other barrister with a sigh, ruffling his own hair. “but it’s understandable that he got mad at us too. I mean, we did flop pretty badly.”

“Please don’t take it personally, Baek.” Luhan smiles gently.

“I didn’t.”

“He was just an asshole.” Sehun adds.

“I’m sorry,” Yixing says again.

 

Baekhyun balks.

 

“Why are _you_ sorry? If anything I should be the one saying sorry to all of you. I…”

 

He pauses and casts a hefty look on all of them, feeling utterly dispirited. His eyes stop at Chanyeol’s intense gaze and he gives up, waving the cloud of disheartenment away.

“Forget it,” he breathes. “We’ve done what we came here to do. Our business is done here, and the rest is up to what we find in Seoul. There are still three months before the trial starts... We can do this.”

“Baek…” Yixing smiles.

“We’ll be fine.” Baekhyun breathes. “I promise. No matter what happens, we’ll be fine.”

 

Yixing nods and reaches out for his hand, but the associate slowly shakes his head.

“Let’s have some rest.” he nods. “We’re flying back tomorrow.”

 

 

 

They do not argue.

 

The tone is weary enough to settle any squabble.

 

Chanyeol’s phone rings as he and Baekhyun enter their bedroom, sluggish and drained. He pulls it out and reads while the other man walks over to the bed, turning on the night desk lamp with one hand and loosening his tie with the other.

 

“Tao says he’ll meet us here tomorrow morning.” Chanyeol announces softly after a while.

Baekhyun takes off his watch and nods.

“Good…”

“He says he found a very nice beach while hanging out with his friend…He’s considering a career change now.”

 

The elder lawyer does not answer, but smiles to himself, too tired to look at the other man in the eye. Chanyeol’s deep voice picks up again:

 

“He says ‘ _Thank you’_.”

 

Baekhyun stills, soundless, his back turned towards both Chanyeol and the door as he slowly sits down on his side of the bed. A pause, then he hears the younger man shift towards him, and soon a hand touches his shoulder.

 

“Baek…”

“Can we not talk anymore for the rest of the day?” Baekhyun interjects, desperate. “I am really exhausted.”

“I just don’t want you to go to bed looking like this…”

“Looking like what?” the elder man furrows his eyebrows.

“Like…you’re still miffed about this morning.”

“I’m not miffed. I just think…” he scoffs, irked in spite of his own weariness, “I just think it’s funny, you know. That you were right."

Chanyeol frowns.

"Right about what?"

"Everything. You got it all right, back there in that tower. And I thought you were just being completely out of place when you were warning me about this,” he looks at Chanyeol and hates the fact that his gaze is wavering. “You warned me that he would not give a damn about our firm’s values, you warned me that he wouldn’t care about anything but the results…and I didn’t listen. Now what? You were right. You were utterly, entirely and infinitely right,  and I am an idiot for not paying attention.”

“You’re not. Come on, Baek, that’s not true. You know it’s not true…I was just giving an opinion and you were giving me yours.”

“Yes, and back then, I thought your opinion was nonsense,” Baekhyun rubs his forehead. “When actually, you’ve always been the more pragmatic one out of us two. The least idealistic. And the least naïve, too.”

“Naivety is not a bad thing.”

“It makes you a useless lawyer.” Baekhyun scorns, but suddenly Chanyeol grabs him by the arm and shakes him hard. Once. His stare is dry and ardent when he looks at Baekhyun in the eye.

 

“Don’t ever tell me you’re useless. _Ever_ ,” he rumbles like a thunderstorm.

 

The elder man shudders and shoves him away, too disturbed to speak.

“Jesus Christ, relax…” he starts, uncertain. “You’re the one who wanted me to vent my frustration. That’s what I’m doing.”

Chanyeol blinks, putting his hand back on the mattress as he sits next to Baekhyun on the bed. “Sorry, I just…I just don’t think you deserve to be hurt, that’s all.”

“I’m not _hurt_ …” Baekhyun sighs. “And about not deserving to be hurt…sometimes you suffer regardless of whether you deserve it or not, anyways. I don’t think I was detestable to the extent of deserving blows, but my dad gave me a handful every day in my teenage years. And then, there was Yixing too…” he smiles a little sadly. “You’d think I’m not too much of a repugnant guy, right?  Not too ugly. Not too dirty. Not too coarse…So _why_ did it have to be Kris…? Why not me instead?”

 

Chanyeol watches silently as Baekhyun plops down on the bed with a discouraged sound, facing the chandelier on the ceiling, his arms extended on the mattress and his lips slightly parted as he sighs.

 

“Not very fair, don’t you think?” he slurs.

And Chanyeol chuckles before anything else.

“So you did like Yixing…” is all he says.

“Yes, well. I thought I had made that obvious enough with my fervent denial,” Baekhyun chortles, without hard feelings. “It never worked out though… As you guessed, it was a one-sided thing and he only considered me as a friend.”

“Did you tell him?”

“Yeah.” Baekhyun sneers at the memory. “Most excruciating moment of my life... But it never became awkward afterwards and I’m thankful for that. He just told me that he cherished me as a good friend and …that was all.”

 

He pauses and stares blankly at the ceiling.

  
“That was before Kris left the company, too. Three years. How time flies…”

 

Chanyeol muses and plops down on the mattress next to him, his arms thrown back over his head.

“Do you still have feelings for him?”

“I don’t think so,” Baekhyun shakes his head. “Remnants, maybe. A skipping heartbeat here and there... A fond smile on occasions...”

“You still love him, then.” Chanyeol laughs.

“I try not to, honestly.”

“But then,” the younger man’s voice sounds more grave, all of a sudden, “does that mean there isn’t space for anybody else?”

 

Baekhyun freezes. His heart skips a beat.

 

“I…think I should concentrate on my professional life.”

“ _I_ think your problem is that you’re too keen on being professional all the time,” Chanyeol retorts with a scoff, propping himself up with his elbow. His eyes are lidded and his smile is easy. A soft smile devoid of meaning. “How about just being natural?”

Baekhyun snorts.

“Being natural doesn’t pay.”

“That’s not true. Look at Luhan.”

“Yeah, well, how many Luhans are there?” the elder man cracks a smile against his will as he turns towards his colleague, giggling.

“One. Thank God, because otherwise we’d have coffee freaks running all over the department in oversized sweaters.” Chanyeol finishes with a grin, and Baekhyun joins him, his eyes crinkling as he laughs and covers his face.

 

Chanyeol beams, all teeth out, his huge puppy eyes glowing warmly under the dim glow of the desk lamp.

“You’re smiling.” He says.

“I what?”

“You smiled. You finally smiled.” the younger man laughs, leaning over to stare into Baekhyun’s eyes, who swats when Chanyeol’s hand comes too close to his face. “Look, you’re smiling again.”

“Oh my God, cut the crap, you’re talking to me like I’m a baby.”

“Who’s the world’s grumpiest baby?” the other picks up immediately with cooing sounds, to the elder man’s despair. “Who is it?”

“Get out!” Baekhyun guffaws, rasping for air as he laughs.

And Chanyeol pinches his cheeks, still grinning.

“That’s right, Baekhyunnie is the world’s grumpiest baby. Fattest baby in the world too.”

“You’re such an idiot,” he gags, gasping, so exhausted that his arms fall back next to his face, and he tilts his head back with the remains of a laugh still taking his breath away.

 

He barely notices when Chanyeol’s hand falls next to his ear, his arm loosely passing over Baekhyun’s chest to form an arch over the elder man’s body. His face is awfully close too. So close that he can smell the other man’s cologne with every breath and see each pore on the man’s fair cheeks.

 

“Did you know,” the elder man says out of nowhere, “that laughing like this three times a day can make you live longer?”

 

Chanyeol doesn’t reply. Instead, he stares, pauses, and bats his eyelids once before leaning forward, landing a slow and gentle kiss on Baekhyun’s lips.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> N/A: :')


	8. 8

**Ch. 8**

 

 

Maybe it is because of the wine they had during dinner earlier on, but as he lies there on the hotel bed, Baekhyun feels physically incapable of pulling back from Chanyeol’s lips. Instead he stills, eyes closed, slightly light and dizzy in the head as he finds himself making useless observations, like the fact that Chanyeol tastes of mint and pear – remains of that odd pie they had for dessert. He is almost ready to stay like that forever, when suddenly the younger man emits an apprehensive sound, and Baekhyun jerks, forced to face reality against his will as Chanyeol breaks the kiss. He tries to look bothered, but cannot even manage that and only stares blankly at the younger man’s worried face instead.

 

“Baek…?” Chanyeol’s voice comes as a sort of whisper, loaded with hesitation. In the haze created by daze and fascination, Baekhyun fails to answer, his mouth opening and closing like a desiccating carp.

 

He sees the younger lawyer shoot him a smile full of questions and hope. But when he says nothing in response to it for half a minute, forty-five seconds, then eventually a whole minute, the smile disappears from Chanyeol's face and the younger man finally pulls himself off the bed. Baekhyun sits up with him and waits as the lawyer broods in silence, looking ostensibly ashamed of himself.

 

They break the wall of discomfort only after a long moment of hesitation. 

 

"I-"

"You-"

“I did something really silly," Chanyeol finishes, casting him an anxious glance. "Didn’t I?”

 

The elder man looks at him, then sideways at the empty wall.

 

“A bit,” he concedes.

 

Chanyeol sits, still too uncertain to be hopeful, but prudently staying on the spot, big eyes fixed on the alarm clock on their night desk. He makes a gesture with his hands, struggling:

“Was it the timing?"

Baekhyun hesitates.

"I'm sorry?"

"Was it my timing which was wrong, or the…the-”

“Oh - no. The whole thing.” Baekhyun completes and clears his throat, picking his words carefully. “Though, yes, the timing was bad too, admittedly. You know… business trip… straight after me confessing that I used to like another guy…Pretty terrible. A zero out of ten, really.”

 

Chanyeol glances at him and lets out a soft laugh while the elder man tries offering a helpful smile in return, glad that there is no bitterness in the other lawyer's laugh, at the very least.

 

Chanyeol soon passes a hand over his messy hair:

“I suppose you're right. Will you take my apologies, at least?”

"Apologies taken."

"Thanks... I won't do it again. I'm an idiot and I will reflect upon it, promise."

“Well.” The senior associate coughs and scratches his cheek. “Maybe there's no need to go that far.”

“You just said it was terrible,” the younger man replies with a snort.

“No...” Baekhyun shakes his head carefully. “No. Actually, feeling-wise,...”

“It’s okay, Baek. I’m not fifteen.” Chanyeol derides wearily, “You don’t have to try to make me feel better for fear that I’ll act awkwardly in front of  you… I can deal with rejections, you know.”

“That’s not why I’m saying this.”

 

Chanyeol frowns as he faces him.

 

“ _Baek_.” he groans without heat. “I knew pertinently well that you didn’t want this relationship – our relationship – to evolve into something deeper than just colleagues’ rapport.”

“Then why did you kiss me?”

“I just…duped myself into believing that our push-and-pull would lead to something and that you would eventually give me a chance. I thought you would look at me under a different light if I tried hard enough…Go figure, I just thought we had some kind of connection, like a mutual understanding or something.”

“It’s not as simple as that,” Baekhyun interjects.

“I know. Because you value professionalism more than anything. For you, we are colleagues and that's it. You've made that position very clear. ”

“No. Listen, if I were to go with my guts right now, I would kiss you again, and I hope you're aware of that.”

The younger man stares at him skeptically.

“Why?”

“Why do you think?” The elder man snaps dryly. “Are you an idiot? Two days back in the elevator, yesterday with Yixing, this morning when you walked in in that bathrobe and picked up my tie, and I – well, fuck, this is embarrassing.” Baekhyun bites his lips and takes a deep breath before facing the other man again, “Back in the elevator, when we talked - all the time when we're around each other, there is a whole bag of things that I want to say and can't say because it's not the right time... What I _can_ say now, on the other hand, is that when you were kissing me, back there, I liked it. And I wouldn't have said no if you had carried on.”

He pauses and rolls his eyes:

"But you didn’t, of course, and now, here we are. All because you are so _dumb_ …”

“Hold on, you can’t just call me dumb when I’ve just gotten rejected...”

“Except you _didn’t_ get rejected, you dimwit.”

 

Chanyeol stares stupidly at him while he regains his composure, pursing his lips from embarrassment.

 

“I do want to give you a chance.” He utters at last, and the younger man's expression goes from pure astonishment to vibrant delight. "With a condition.”

Chanyeol's face falls as fast as it had lightened up.

“I don't know what I was expecting..."

“Shut up. The last time I checked, we were on a business trip,” Baekhyun points out with irritation. “An _important_ business trip concerning a case that could very well be the biggest of the decade for our firm. Emotions and power of judgment should always be separate things.”

“So what?”

“So my power of judgment tells me that if we go ahead with this now, I’d give you my everything and the HaiLong case would just go to Hell, that's what.”

 

Chanyeol narrows his eyes.

 

“You’d give me…?”

“Everything.” Baekhyun nods, and he hears the hitch in the younger man’s breath. “With no in-betweens.”

Chanyeol’s expression darkens.

“That means a lot.”

“I know.”

He rubs his neck uneasily, picking up his court voice for emphasis, “That’s why I call for patience. So that we have no regrets later on. And that we can have something stable once the case is over.”

“You know that I would have no regrets even if we had something now.”

“I know!” Baekhyun groans. “But I-”

 

He stops when he glances up to meet Chanyeol’s eyes, and a smile is the first thing he sees on the younger man’s face. The expression takes him by surprise and he has to blink a few times to make sure he isn’t dreaming. He isn’t. Soon, Chanyeol shifts away from the bed, only to sit down on the floor in front of him.

 

“I don’t mind waiting." he says. "As long as you keep your word.”

"I...Of course I will."

"Promise?"

“Why are you looking at me with those huge round eyes?” Baekhyun frowns. “Get up, it’s gross.”

“Are you self-conscious? It is unlike a successful lawyer like you to be shy…”

“What does this have to do with success? I like to keep my professional life and my love life a separate thing, in case you didn't notice.”

“And unfortunately, I can’t give you that…” Chanyeol snorts a little sadly, before looking up at him again. “You’re such an independent person, Baek. I think that’s what I’ve always admired in you.”

“Aren’t you the same?” Baekhyun gives him a glance.

 

Chanyeol smiles contemplatively, but does not reply. Instead, he holds the elder man’s hands and offers a smirk.

 

“Promise me you won’t go back on your word.” He drops quietly.

“Why? Of course I’m not going to…”

“Just promise me.”

 

Baekhyun glowers, rolls his eyes and tries to free his hands, but the younger man is strangely insistent. At last, he looks into the other lawyer’s eyes and nods.

"I promise," he says.

And Chanyeol must have taken that for an all-inclusive sort of acceptance, for some reason, because as soon as he finishes, the younger lawyer leans in and kisses him again, tender and slow, languorously softening his lips with his own. The initial surprise gone, Baekhyun responds with hesitation, before eventually relaxing and melting into the younger man’s lips, letting himself enjoy the fleetingness of the moment, the rawness of Chanyeol's heat. A soft grunt escapes him. He can also feel the warmth of Chanyeol’s hands over his own, big and steady. His own fingers feel small in comparison.

 

It is almost a sore thing when the younger man breaks the kiss at last, opening his eyes and staring deeply into his wavering gaze.

 

“Thank you,” he smiles.

 

Baekhyun shakes his head, feeling both indebted and guilty at the same time.

 

“Thank you too,” he mumbles faintly, before standing up and letting go of Chanyeol’s hands.

 

*

*

*

 

“You won’t believe your eyes. It is the coolest thing.”

 

Baekhyun tilts his head as he faces the man in front of him. Undersized and wide-eyed, Kyungsoo floats in his voluminous lab coat, not looking excited in the least despite his affirmative statement. Baekhyun raises his right hand.

 

“You could say hi first. I haven’t seen you in ages.”

“I thought you guys had a busy schedule. So I prepared all my apparatus in advance and waited for you. Don't make me wait any more. Now, if you just come to this side-”

“Hang on, formalities first,” he stresses, pointing at Kyungsoo and glancing at Chanyeol, who is standing obediently next to him in the vast laboratory: “Chanyeol, this is Do Kyungsoo, Senior associate in the Environment Department. Kyungsoo...”

“I know. Partner in the HaiLong case.” Kyungsoo rejoins, shaking Chanyeol’s hand quickly before reaching into his massive pockets and pulling two pair of goggles out. “Put those on. Safety measures.”

 

Chanyeol catches the spectacles, tucking his own glasses back into his jacket before putting the goggles on:

“Was it necessary to have this meeting inside a laboratory?”

“It’s nicer to illustrate my point with visuals, right?” Kyungsoo shrugs without looking at them, leading the way through the large workroom. “Since you guys went all the way to Shanghai to bring back samples…”

“Were those actually useful?”

“Of course they were, why wouldn’t they be?”

“The client was reluctant to believe it.”

 

Kyungsoo opens round eyes like tennis balls but does not make any comment. Instead, he stops in front of a counter laden by test tubes and starts by clutching a marked beaker, filling it with water from an open flask.

 

Baekhyun observes him quietly for a while and sketches a smile.

“Are you sure this is really going to solve our hitch?”

“I don’t know,” Kyungsoo shrugs, hands all over the counter, his enormous goggles giving him the air of a curious owl. “Depends on how well you argue it in court, I suppose. How was Shanghai?”

“Interesting...”

“Jongin said you got back in touch with Yixing.”

“He came back with us, actually.” Baekhyun rests against the counter, only to have Kyungsoo push him back with one dismissive arm. “He’s going to be arguing in court for us as part of the dispute team.”

“Even though it’s against Smith & Harolds? He moved on from the YiFan chapter, then…”

“I’m…not too sure about that.”

“And you? Still in love with him?”

 

Baekhyun unconsciously glances at Chanyeol, who simply smiles and keeps his gaze focused on Kyungsoo’s actions. After thinking it over, the senior associate shakes his head.

“No.”

Kyungsoo does not reply, too concentrated on the pipet in his hand. He drops something into the beaker on the table, before lifting it up and shaking it lightly. Eventually, the liquid turns a honeyed yellow, making him smile with satisfaction as he puts the container down.

 

Baekhyun watches him with an affectionate smirk.

 

“You look like you’re having the time of your life.” He remarks after a while.

“Are you teasing?”

“No. I just find it cute how you love lab work.”

“You’re teasing me.” He looks at Chanyeol. “He’s teasing me.”

“Do you get your kicks from shaking test tubes?” Baekhyun smiles, but Kyungsoo extends a gloved hand, reaching for his neck threateningly. 

“If you’re not quiet, I won’t show you the good stuff.” The man mutters, still focusing on his apparatus. “Now watch. You see this beaker here?”

 

Baekhyun and Chanyeol huddle close, goggles carefully hanging on the tip of their nose.

 

“What about it?”

“That’s a lab-made liquid containing all the components of sea water.” Kyungsoo explicates. “After you sent me your samples, I made a few simple tests with this water to confirm my doubts…And I had a lot of doubts, really, because when I read the descriptions of the crash, something about the way the explosion occurred seriously started to bug me… The collision was big. But the way the ships struck each other did not explain why the explosion was so large…Which is why I really wanted to make my own tests.”

“And…?”

“And,” Kyungsoo starts slowly and turns towards them with a blink. “I was right. You guys know how all the plaintiff’s cargos were completely destroyed, right?”

“Yeah. They…combusted. Nothing was left.”

“So my theory is that there is something highly volatile in the pharmaceutical products of the plaintiffs, that literally _caused_ the explosion upon the start of turbulence,” he says, serious and odd-looking in his oversized lab coat. “So the crash itself isn’t the cause of the explosion. The cause of the explosion is the pharmaceutical products themselves.”

 

He grabs a skinny, filled test tube from the nearest rack and lets one drop fall into the beaker. As soon as the bead touches the water, a huge popping sound shatters the stillness of the room, whipping and cracking as the liquid starts to fizz and ignite. Sparks fly. The three of them cluster to the back of the room, protecting their faces with their arms, but Kyungsoo shows no surprise in his wide owl eyes, soon scurrying speedily towards the stormy beaker to cover it with a cap.

 

Baekhyun takes a deep breath, staring at his friend with astonished eyes.

“What on Earth was that?”

“Showing what happened during the collision.” Kyungsoo offers a heart-shaped smile.  “On a much smaller scale.”

“What the Hell did you drop in there?”

“Remains of the sample you brought back.”

“And it explodes like that with sea water…?” Baekhyun is half-baffled, half-revolted. “How could they load such a thing onto a cargo ship?”

“It doesn’t explode with sea water alone. It’s sea water and phosphorus and a whole lot of other things…Anyway, the thing we’re talking about is a medical module that’s both new and sloppily investigated...It doesn’t explode just like that, but a combination of turbulence and sea water…and poof. Big explosion. The water turns slightly dark afterwards and it leaves residue, which got stuck onto the wrecked ship’s hull.”

 

Baekhyun wipes the sweat off his forehead.

“I can’t believe no one thought of this before…”

“It's rare," Kyungsoo shrugs, "and there’s so little of it in the pharmaceutical product...Besides, when you think of shipping cases, you usually refer to benzene cases or other cases like that, right? You wouldn’t think of this component.” he scratches his nose. “But because this thing we’re talking about is extremely dense, it stagnates and does not move with the current. That’s why I asked for sea water from the sight of the crash to start with.”

“And that’s the thing which caused such a big-scale explosion…”

“Yeah.” Kyungsoo nods. “And you know what that means right?”

 

Baekhyun and Chanyeol only look at each other, still too stunned to think properly. With a sigh, Kyungsoo covers the beaker and turns to face them.

 

“Since it is an element of the plaintiff’s product which caused the explosion, then the damage suffered by the plaintiffs is not _caused_ by the HaiLong company. The same explosion would have occurred if there was a sudden, unstoppable storm, which would have nothing to do with the HaiLong employees’ negligence. Therefore, because the bulk of the explosion was factually caused by the plaintiff’s carelessness in loading an extremely dangerous product onto the ship, the shipping company itself shouldn’t be liable.” Kyungsoo swallows. “Long story short, when the turbulence started and the cargos touched the water, there was a break in the causation chain.”  

 

Chanyeol bats his eyelids as the information sinks in.

 

“So you’re saying that as far as causation is concerned, HaiLong caused the crash, but the plaintiff caused the destruction of the cargos.”

 

Kyungsoo nods, smiling like a young boy after a satisfying day in the fields. Baekhyun opens his mouth and points at the covered beaker.

 

“The trial starts in a little more than two months.”

“I know.”

“Do you have pictures to show this _thing_ in court?”

“I have it all documented,” Kyungsoo replies. “With photographs and videos, all recorded and ready to go.”

 

 

*

 

“It almost sounds too easy.” Baekhyun declares as they return to their own department side by side and push the giant glass door open. “Arguing for causation when all along, we’ve been looking at contributory negligence…”

“Well, it just means that Smith & Harolds is going to be in for a surprise.” Chanyeol smiles.

“Not if we submit our arguments beforehand like we’re supposed to.”

“You can choose not to,” the younger man says lightly, and as they pass by the first pair of offices, Baekhyun glances at him.

“I never asked you how you felt about this...”

“This?”

“The case, your dad…if we win against Smith & Harolds, your father might be sad.”

 

Chanyeol sniggers. “Sad’s not the word – he’d be furious.”

“I always thought it was a bit inconsiderate…” Baekhyun continues grimly. “To put you on the case when you’d just been part of the same firm we’re arguing against. I don’t know. It just seems a little obnoxious.”

“Don’t think that,” the younger man shrugs. “if Suho had not decided to put me on the case, I would have applied to be part of the team myself.”

 

The usual chatter of the department fills their ears, distant and familiar, sounds of Jongin’s hopeful voice – _Luhan, there is a new comedy movie called ‘Love is Blind’ in the theatres right now_ – and Luhan’s sprightly replies – _Eh? But I hate romantic comedies._ – overlapping indistinctly. Baekhyun smiles a little and observes the younger man’s face.

 

“I’m… glad you’re part of the team anyhow.”

Chanyeol looks surprised.

“I didn’t think you’d say something like that.”

“No, you’re right,” Baekhyun looks down and takes out his phone. “I won’t say it again – it’s annoying, this thing, I keep on missing Kris’s calls these days, and his phone’s always busy when I call.”

“No time to meet him?”

“He sent a message when we were in Shanghai…But when I tried booking a time to have coffee with him, he didn’t reply anything.”

“Maybe he knows that Yixing’s back.”

“Possibly.” Baekhyun contemplates, his hands in his pockets. “Either way, I’ll deal with him later. HaiLong first. God, damn this case… I’ll be glad once it’s over.”

“Same,” Chanyeol says with a little meaningful smile. And Baekhyun rolls his eyes, snickering back against his will.

 

“Come on,” he pinches the younger man’s sleeves and pulls him towards Suho’s office in that fashion, “we have a report to make now.”

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SORRY FOR THE CHEESE OH MY GOD.


	9. 9

**Ch. 9**

 

 

Baekhyun sighs. It is exactly eight sixteen on a Monday morning and they have forty-four minutes before needing to be in court, meeting the litigating team of Smith&Harolds, and submitting their respective cases before the court clerk. It is also exactly three days before the opening of the trial, and roughly seventy-four hours before Jongin and Yixing get to unroll their testimony in front of the trial judge. And yet, somehow, today of all days, Chanyeol is late. 

"Talk about bad timing..." Baekhyun grunts, but no one replies. 

Yixing is already much paler and thinner than he was in Shanghai. As usual, stress has taken its toll on his complexion, and Baekhyun wishes he had a way to lighten the elder man’s burden somehow, though he knows he himself looks just as deplorable after the last two months of witness preparation and drafting of testimonies. For Jongin on the other hand, who has never been the type to be called ‘pale’, his tension translated into edginess, long silences, and dark circles under his emotive eyes. This morning, he is standing by the coffee machine, tapping impatiently on the table edge, looking at his watch every three minutes and clicking his tongue in annoyance.

 

“We need to leave in fifteen minutes at the latest. The traffic is crazy at this hour.”

“I know,” Baekhyun sips from his tea. “Just be calm. We’ll be on time.”

Jongdae, who is back from his secondment, twirls a spoon in his chamomile infusion and glances at the two of them:

“Big day?”

“Not really big day,” Baekhyun sighs. “We’re just submitting the merit brief.”

“I thought you guys didn’t want to expose your arguments before trial.”

“We’re not: This is just formalities.”

Jongdae smirks. “If it’s just formalities, then why are you guys so stressed?” 

“God knows.”

“I’m always stressed.” Jongin replies glumly, loosening his tie a bit before regretting it and heading towards the mirror above the sink to rearrange it. On his way there, Luhan bumps into him and almost drops his mug.

 

Jongin catches him before the cup can fall.

 

“Are you alright?” the barrister stutters, genuinely horrified.

 

But upon seeing him, Luhan blinks a few times and simply displays a radiant grin.

“Of course. Actually, Jongin, I was looking for you.”   

“Were you...?”

“Yeah,” the secretary nods pleasantly, before handing him a printed email: “there’s this clerk from your chambers, who’s just sent me an email about some barristers conference in May-”

“Oh,” the younger man’s face falters. “Oh yeah. Right. Well, uh, I’ll deal with that later, don’t worry.”

“Okay.”

“Please forward the soft copy to me when you have time.”

“Sure.” Luhan smiles. “Will do.”

“Thanks.”

Jongin sighs despondently and faces the other way when Luhan seems to remember something else.

“By the way, Jongin,” he retains the younger man by the hand, “You know the romantic comedy you told me about last time? Someone gave me the DVD recently. Let’s watch it together this Sunday.”

Jongin almost trips as he spins around and chokes on his joy.

“Really?!”

“Uhuh,” Luhan nods. “Sehun and I will provide the popcorn, so if you can just bring some drinks along, that’d be great.”

 

Jongin’s face falls so fast his jaw makes an audible sound.

“Why Sehun?”

“Why not Sehun?” comes Sehun’s moody voice from the other side of the wall.

“This is slowly turning into an everyday routine, isn’t it.” Jongdae whispers into his cup with an amused smile.

 

Baekhyun shrugs and sighs, a tap on his shoulder making him turn his head. He is almost certain of seeing Chanyeol and tilts his chin up in anticipation, but it is Suho’s face that meets his field of vision when he lowers his eyes to his level.

 

The partner stares at him blankly.

“You just looked over my head,” he says.

“I was expecting someone taller,” Baekhyun rolls his eyes before pushing some hair behind his ear, “is there something wrong?”

“Well, I just thought you guys would be off already.” Suho cocks an eyebrow and points at his watch. “It’s getting a little late if you want to be punctual about that submission, don’t you think?”

“Chanyeol hasn’t arrived yet.”

“Where is he?”

“Probably stuck in traffic,” Baekhyun answers. “He sent me a text earlier, saying that he’ll be here as soon as he can.”

 

Suho simply nods, still looking anxious as he wanders towards the open area of the department. Baekhyun follows him. He stops when the elder man pauses by Sehun’s desk and uses the counter as an arm rest.

 

“Only three days until the trial,” the partner states.

“Well. You’d think we’d be used to the stress of a court case by now, eh?” Baekhyun sneers softly.

“Never.” Suho shudders. “Why can’t all firms just settle? It’s completely beyond me. Each time we have a court case I spend at least one sleepless night just freaking out…” he rubs his temple. “Just give me a break.”

“Chanyeol and I really did our best...We’ll be fine.”

 

Suho smiles gently at him.

 

“You two work very well together, don’t you?”

The senior associate looks down ruefully.

“I suppose you know…”

“-that there’s _something_. Yes, I know.” the partner nods with closed eyes. “He has always been rather fond of you, Chanyeol…even back when he was in Smith &Harolds. We’ve talked in the past and he’s always given me nothing but huge compliments about you, praising you every time you finished a case against each other. You were the only one who never noticed, to be honest.”

“He is a capable man.” Baekhyun speaks slowly. “And he does help me a lot.”

“I’m glad he does. That’s why I put him on the team, after all.” Suho nods, looking pensively at the floor. “Though I also think it was a wise choice that you two have decided to keep it down a notch before the end of the case.”

 

A this, the associate raises his head, frowning as he peers into his superior’s weary face.

 

“What do you mean?”

“Well, as you might have noticed, Yunho’s been rather caught up lately.” Suho says with an eloquent look. “It so happens that he wasn’t just, well, ‘busying himself’ with the Employment and Tax Department as one might think…The truth is that Yunho is going to be transferred to the Tokyo office very soon…on a _permanent_ basis.”

 

Baekhyun opens wide astonished eyes, but Suho simply continues to stare at him expectantly without a word, as if forecasting a bigger reaction.

 

“You know what this means?” the partner finally asks after a while.

“Uh... No.”

“Well it means we’ll have a vacant partner position in the department very soon. And I don’t think I’m allowed to reveal the identity of the next candidate to you but, let’s say that this person is someone you know very well, and that I am talking to this someone right now, at this very moment.”

“Fuck,” Baekhyun wheezes, “you must be kidding.”

“No need for expletives.”

“Is this why I got the case?” Baekhyun stammers in disbelief. “The reason you gave such a big case to an associate like me…It’s because it’s a test from the managerial board?”

“Well, you _are_ very young, and the firm can’t afford to let you obtain a partner position without some sort of preliminary assessment.” And Suho turns more earnest as he says those words: “Which is why it would also be well-advised that you and Chanyeol keep it discreet before the HaiLong case ends. As a matter of professional image, you don’t want them to think that you’re dating, instead of working for the client. If you want that partner position, my advice is this: keep a low profile. Finish this case. Win it. By the end of the year, Yunho’s office will be yours.”

 

Baekhyun shakes his head, pressing two fingers against his temple as the partner puts a hand on his shoulder. The shock takes time to dissipate.

 

“It’s alright, you’ll be fine.” Suho says. “You’ve done this countless times in the past and you’ve always been great. You’re our team’s “Miracle-Baek”. Right?”

“That’s just a nickname you guys gave me.” Baekhyun snaps, still shaken. “I can’t actually do miracles. The first case I _lost_ was against Smith &Harolds.”

“Against Park Chanyeol.” Suho interposes. “Who is your partner this time.”

“Well...” the associate rubs his neck.

“It’s okay. The plaintiff’s side knows nothing about our arguments on causation. So just go there and show them what you’ve got.” The elder man pinches his cheek and smiles. “Okay?”

“Yes, mum.”

“Good.”

 

Suho nods one last time, as if for himself, before taking off and  leaving Baekhyun alone in front of the secretaries' desks. Sehun lifts his head carelessly as soon as the partner is gone and meets the associate’s eye. For a while, Baekhyun simply stares back at the secretary’s blank expression without a word. Then, at last, he finds his tongue again.

 

“Did you hear all that?”

Sehun grumbles: “I wasn’t supposed to?”

"Well..." 

Baekhyun hesitates a second, but eventually shrugs. 

“Well, as long as you don’t run around telling that to everyone…”

“Sure.” the younger man says nippily and returns to his computer, making the elder man pause.

“And don’t go whisper it into Luhan’s ear either.”

Sehun looks rather disappointed, but nods more or less obediently.

“Fine. I won’t.”

“Thank you.”

 

Baekhyun pauses, before sighing and leaning against the younger man’s counter to gaze at his face:

 

“Why do you do it anyways? The thing.”

“What thing?”

“You know, the thing…” he waves with his hand. “That thing where you just put yourself in the middle whenever Jongin tries to get some time alone with Luhan…”

Sehun blinks, looking mildly sheepish and a lot childlike all of a sudden.

“I don’t know…It’s just for fun.”

“Well, it certainly is fun to watch.” the lawyer admits reluctantly. “But damn, it’s not like they’ll ever get together at this rate. And Luhan has no idea how sad Jongin gets every time he rejects him.”

 

There is a moment of silence between them, where Sehun just scowls and Baekhyun observes him without understanding.

 

“Office romance leads to office drama anyways.” the younger man soon says dolefully.

“But that’s no reason not to try,” Baekhyun shrugs. “We’re all friends here, after all. Aren’t we?”

“I don’t want anyone to leave anymore.”

 

The tone is bitter. It surprises him. And when Baekhyun looks down to take a second look at Sehun’s expression, there is a flicker of discontentment on the secretary’s face, a seriousness that he had failed to see earlier, which takes him aback and disconcerts him. The truth is so blatant that it almost hurts.

 

Sehun is actually sad.

 

“You miss Kris,” Baekhyun suddenly understands, the truth seeping through his lips with much more ease than he had expected.

 

Sehun only sulks, looking mildly pissed.

 

“Oh God… You actually miss Kris.” The elder man starts to smile before he can retain himself. “I always thought you didn’t care about anyone in the firm, but you actually do miss him; that’s so…”

“Shut the fuck up.”

“Is that why you’re scared of Jongin and Luhan getting together?” Baekhyun laughs softly. “Because you think Jongin would leave if things went badly, like for  Kris and Yixing?”

“Jongin’s a barrister.” Sehun grumbles. “He works for his own account. No one says he has to stay here forever.”

“Oh, Sehun…” Baekhyun flicks the younger man’s forehead. “Jongin stays here because he likes the place. We give him good work, and we treat him well. Not all office romances lead to office dramas… This doesn’t have to be a repeat of Yixing and Kris’s story.”

 

The secretary hesitantly looks up from his screen, the corner of his lips relaxing a bit.

 

“Right.” he says with a small smile.

“God, Sehun…You worry so much.”

“I said shut the fuck up, didn’t I?”

“Yes, well, but…”  

“Baek!”

 

Baekhyun raises his head, only to see Yixing waving at him from the other side of the corridor.

“Chanyeol’s arrived.” The barrister urges. “We need to go. _Now_.”

 

Baekhyun takes another look at Sehun, wanting to make one last heart-to-heart comment before he goes. But when the younger man gives him the middle finger and dismisses him with his usual poker face, he turns and flees without another word.

 

*

*

*

 

As feared, the traffic keeps them locked on the road to the tribunal for a good half an hour and their team arrives late, rushing towards the appointed room like late-rising students on their way to school. Baekhyun bites his lower lip as they turn into the right corridor and slows down his pace.

 

“We’re never doing this again,” he grunts, looking at Chanyeol’s tall, puffing figure next to him. “You better be on time next time.”

“I’m really sorry…”

“Where were you anyways?”

“Traffic.” Chanyeol replies, still looking forward as they search for the room number. “I woke up too late.”

“You’re incorrigible…”

“Won’t happen again, I promise.”

 

The elder man snorts and raises his head, noticing the metallic plate above the penultimate door of the corridor, and stopping to push it open. The four of them drop in one by one, bowing as they walk into the occupied office.

“Sorry for the delay,” Baekhyun apologizes first. “We got stuck on the road…”

“Oh, that’s alright,” the clerk smiles, while behind him, the litigation team from Smith&Harolds stand up from their seats across the table.

 

A woman walks forward with an intransigent smile, stretching out a hand towards Baekhyun. “Thanks for phoning in advance,” she starts, “I am Jung Soojung; in-house lawyer for the plaintiffs.”

“Byun Baekhyun, associate from Lighthouse Pinson.” Baekhyun replies instinctively, his eyes trailing slowly from her to the three other lawyers behind her back. Two of them leave no impression on him whatsoever and he skips over them. The third one, however, is tall, silent, aloof, and makes his hair stand on end.

 

He opens his mouth, suddenly struck by muteness.

 

“K-Kris.” he finally drops as he finds his words again.

 

Yixing, who was filing through his documents until now, snaps as soon as he hears his name and becomes as white as a sheet when he raises his head. His breath leaves him. It is Kris, indeed – yes, he would recognize him anywhere. It is a pallid and distant Kris and a Kris who seems quite unsure of why he is standing there himself, but Kris all the same. Yixing opens his mouth and wavers, while Jongin widens round staggered eyes. Only Chanyeol looks genuinely confused by all their reactions, but Baekhyun does not even have the time to care.

 

“Kris, how come-” Jongin stammers.

“I wasn’t aware that you were on the team.” Baekhyun cuts coldly. “None of us were, in fact.”

 

The other man does not reply, holding his gaze with both impertinence and guilt. As silence falls, the second lawyer from Smith&Harolds intervenes leisurely, delicate features on a masculine face.

 

“Kris joined in late. We had a few last minute changes in the team.”

 

Baekhyun glances at him and cocks an eyebrow:

“‘ _Choi Minho’_?”

“No. That’s Lee Taemin.” Chanyeol introduces instead before pointing at a third lawyer standing in the corner of the room. “That’s Choi Minho.” 

“Long time no see,” Minho says cheekily.

“The legal world is a funny place, isn’t it? One day, you’re friendly colleagues and the next day you’re on opposite sides of a courtroom.”

“Very funny indeed,” Baekhyun replies with a smile, trying hard to keep his anger contained. Half of him is actually afraid, unprepared.

 

He glances at Yixing instinctively, but the barrister does not return his look, only holding the stacks of binders in his two steady hands and staring at the ground. He is not trembling; only silent and befuddled, and incredibly guilty...

 

Chanyeol takes a step forward to shake his old colleagues’ hands.

 

“No use for this kind of mood, guys,” he declares calmly. “As for introductions, this is Kim Jongin and here, Zhang Yixing, who is going to advise on Chinese domestic law. I’m Park Chanyeol – but you guys know that already.”

Minho hums: “ _Way_ too well...”

“Oh, Minho is competitive as Hell.” Soojung rolls her eyes and gives Baekhyun an eloquent nudge to explain. “He takes anyone and anything as his rival. Don't mind him.”

The associate simply shrugs.

"What's wrong with being competitive?"

"Nothing. It's just...very annoying and obnoxious..." she clears her throat. 

"Well, you're just too intolerant. Now, come on. Should we sit down and have an informal chat?" Minho grins, changing the subject. "We’ve talked a lot by correspondence and phone these last months, but never face to face.”

“I don’t mind…” Jongin answers slowly.

“Wait,” Yixing finally cuts through. “Have this first.”

 

He rigidly places the binders into the clerk’s hands, then straightens up and looks down obstinately at the table, only making a stiff gesture towards the files.

 

“The merit brief for the trial. In hard copy.”

“Oh, thanks a lot, that's very helpful.” Soojung smiles, then glances up at Kris. “You two have a similar accent when you speak, by the way.”

“We’re both Chinese.” Kris responds quietly.

“Did you not know?” Minho chortles in his hand, and Soojung puckers her lips as she smacks him on the arm.

“I just meant to say I liked their accents. That’s all. Gosh, do you have to try to sound smart all the time?”

“My Korean’s a bit rusty though.” Yixing says with lowered eyes, his voice a bare whisper.

“Oh, really?” Minho sniggers. “Well, that is good for us, isn’t it?”

 

Baekhyun thinks he is about to snap. And yet, he doesn’t. Somehow, he holds himself back and shuts up. And it is only when the four of them walk out of the small meeting room an hour later that he breaks, igniting with free, irrational anger as they head down the stairs in front of the tribunal to get their car.

 

“Fuck this.” he mutters. “Last minute changes, my ass... He knew this. He knew it and he didn’t even tell any of us, for Christ’s sake-”

“Baek, calm down.”

“No. Chanyeol, you stay out of this.”

“Baekhyun, that’s enough.” Yixing says, still pale and looking guiltier than all of them combined. “It’s my fault.”

“How is it your fault?” Baekhyun snaps. “No one told us he would be there. Screw this, he expressly told me that he _wouldn’t_ be part of the team.”

“Yes, but I’m the one who acted immaturely.” The barrister murmurs, looking pained. “I’m sorry, Baekhyun. I just wasn’t ready… I thought I would be alright if I came back to Seoul and saw him again, but I’m not…I can’t. I obviously can’t.”

 

Chanyeol stops mid-way down the stairs and glances at both of them as his frown deepens.

 

“Will someone at least tell me what the deal is?” he sighs.

“It’s my fault.” Yixing murmurs.

“No.” Baekhyun cuts harshly, then looks at Chanyeol. “Listen. The deal, as you say, is that this guy right here,” he points a finger at Yixing, “has once acted for Kris Wu’s parents in a family trusts dispute, and lost.”

At the memory, Yixing pales off, not wanting to remember, but not lifting a single finger to stop Baekhyun as he continues:

“Kris used to be part of our team, as Yixing was…And they were friends. Very close friends. Best friends, in fact... And they trusted each other so much that one day, when Kris’s parents got embroiled into a massive family trust case, he decided to assign his parent’s legal defense to Yixing.”

“I suggested it first.” the barrister interrupts. “I thought he wouldn’t be able to do it himself and I wanted to help him. But I…”

“Oh, for God’s sake, it wasn’t your fault.”  Baekhyun groans.

“No. I was careless with the cross-examination of the witnesses.” Yixing seems disgusted with himself as he remembers. “It wasn’t even a hard case. I was just negligent. Had I asked the right questions it wouldn’t have gone that way. He trusted me enough to defend his own parents, and I just lost the case like a novice.” he inhales, looking emotionally tired. “Do you know how much his parents lost because of me?”

“No one is exempt from losing cases, Yixing, and you’re no different,” Baekhyun declares curtly, “You don’t have to blame yourself like this. He knows it’s just something that happens because of bad luck.”

“Then why did he leave?”

“Because,” Baekhyun opens his mouth, flinches, closes it and growls, “fuck, I don’t know why he left, alright? Why did you guys never talk about it and solve it between you to start with?”

 

He waits for an answer, but Yixing gives him none, and he realizes that this is it. This is where the problem really lies and where the elder man has always chosen to close his eyes. This is the reason why he himself had been rejected in the past. And it is the last straw.   

 

He throws his hands up in the air and shakes his head.

 

“I’ve had enough.”

 

He pulls out his phone and starts typing under Yixing’s stupefied eyes, before Jongin tries to snatch it away from him. Glaring at each of them in turn, Baekhyun hurtles down a few steps to slip out of their reach and stares into Yixing’s pupils.

 

“You’ve never tried to deal with this,” Baekhyun says, “and that’s why the two of you are like this now: stuck, blind and obstinate… And I’ve had more than enough of this standoff. You said you would be happy. You said the two of you would be good to each other and I gladly believed you. It wasn’t for this that I let go of you, Yixing.”

 

The barrister wavers, and Baekhyun uses this time to turn around and pace down the last few stairs, not stopping even when he hears Chanyeol’s deep, brash voice calling after him.

 

“Baek,” the younger man catches up as he walks off. “Slow down.”

“Shut up, I’m texting.”

“Are you seriously doing this?” Chanyeol’s voice resounds behind him as he looks for the nearest crossing.

 

He doesn’t reply, impatiently waiting for the traffic light whilst glancing at the screen of his phone. The green light flashes at the same time as the ‘message sent’ notice blinks on. He crosses the road and scoffs at Chanyeol’s lanky shadow behind him.

 

“Do you intend to follow me the whole way?”

“You shouldn’t be trying to solve this when we only have three days before the start of the trial.”

“Wrong, it is because we have three days that I have to do this now,” Baekhyun retorts as he arrives on the other side. “Have you not seen him? That was not the face of someone who can deliver his speech with composure and efficiency. It was the face of someone who is shaken, sad, haunted by memories…”

“Did you see yourself?” Chanyeol grabs his hand and forces him to turn around.

 

He points at Baekhyun’s face and winces with despair.

“You’re exactly the same.” he says.

“What?”

“You’re shaken. Haunted. And sad,” Chanyeol shakes his head. “You can’t go in court like this. At this stage, you’re even worse than Yixing, and you’re not acting professionally at all.”

“I’ll be acting even less professionally if you don’t let go of me, I’ll tell you that.”

“Is this about you or is this about him?” the younger man interrupts. “Tell me, Baek. Are you really doing this for Yixing?”

“No! I’m not!” Baekhyun shouts, jerking his hand away and glaring at the other man. “Does that satisfy you? I’m doing this because I can’t stand it; I’m doing it because I was rejected once for this and I was heartbroken, and empty and miserable and _bitter_! And I didn’t go through all of that just to see him hate himself. You are right: I am sad, haunted and shaken out of my mind. And I’m going to talk to Kris just because I need it. Because I’ll never turn the page otherwise.”

 

Chanyeol looks pained, but calm, his eyebrows deeply furrowed as he keeps a straight face.

 

“Baek. Think this through. We only have three days.”

“I don’t even need an hour,” Baekhyun hisses, holding up his phone when it vibrates with a new text. “See this? I’ll see you at the office in the afternoon.”

He breathes in profoundly when his eyes meet Chanyeol’s aggrieved gaze.

“You’re disappointed,” he states. “I’m sorry.”

“Baekhyun…”

“Looks like I’m really not as independent as you seemed to think.”

 

He leaves a moment later, and the younger associate does nothing to stop him this time, only clenching his fists as his sigh extinguishes with the uninvited breeze.  

 

 


	10. 10

**Ch.10**

The very first thing Kris says to him is : “I know you’re angry.”

 

And Baekhyun doesn’t even try to deny it, pushing his friend’s hand away as he attempts to offer him a can of iced coffee. The park is awfully quiet today.  

 

“I’ve tried to tell you,” Kris starts again with weariness, standing up from the bench to tower above him, “I called you many times so that we could talk this through. You can’t blame me for not warning you in advance, really.”

“It’s not that,” Baekhyun retorts, already a lot calmer than he was with Chanyeol. “That doesn’t make me angry.”

“You are pretty furious, though.”

“Because you knew Yixing would be back,” Baekhyun lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. “And you joined the litigation team knowing that nothing was solved between you two, knowing that he would be freaked out as Hell to see you there…”

“Yixing won’t meet me any other way and you know it.” the elder man stares at him seriously, “Baek, you know this. It’s been three years since I left and he hasn’t talked to me since. We will never move on if I don’t take the first step.”

“Why didn’t you take that first step earlier, then?” Baekhyun narrows his eyes. “Three long years, Kris, three damn long years of silence and brooding and moping around – what were you doing all this time?”

“I wasn’t moping.”

“And why did you even leave?” Baekhyun carries on, more and more confused. “Don’t tell me you really blamed him for what happened to your parents, please.”

“No.” Kris utters firmly. “No, I didn’t.”

“Well. Then why did you resign and leave the firm? If it wasn’t for that, he wouldn’t even have thought that you were-”

“No, believe me. It wasn’t because of me,” Kris says grimly as he flips the can over in his hand. “I left because he said that he needed space to think. He said that looking at me pained him… That he wanted to leave Korea and have some time alone.”

 

Baekhyun doesn’t move, delving into the elder man’s eyes and waiting in vain for the sign of a lie to show up. Kris gazes back at him.

 

“I wasn’t the one who blamed him for my parents’ case. He was. And the more I told him that it was okay, the more he felt that he was worthless and that everything he did was a failure. When we were alone, he would talk for a while and then just…break down – it didn’t work anymore. The guilt ate him up from the inside.” he sighs. “I thought that if I left the firm first, he would at least stay in Seoul to think it through.”

Kris purses his lips, looking pissed off with himself.

“Turns out he left anyways, in the end.”

 

“I really don’t understand,” Baekhyun mutters, looking at the ground with remains of anger and exasperation, “why you two, out of all people, had to end up like this. He loves you. He’s always loved you. He used to tell me all the time about how happy he was just being next to you, and how much you helped him through all his hardships in Korea. He respected you and there was never anyone else but you in his eyes, Kris.”

 

The elder man stays quiet, looking gloomy when Baekhyun groans.

“Kris, why-?”

“Why? Because we started to mess around, mixing professional and personal life together.” Kris replies with a bitter rictus, and his eyes glow dimly when Baekhyun suddenly falters. “You know what I’m talking about, right? It’s dangerous to try to bring your professional life into your love life. Yixing and I made that mistake, long ago, when he acted for my parents in that trusts case. I asked him whether he could be with me, whether we could have something together outside of work, and whether he could love me the way I loved him. He told me yes. That once he was done with the case, he would give me all his attention and care without any conditions. But only once he was done with the case, because that would be when he would be most worthy of accepting my love...”

 

The elder man stops, and Baekhyun finds himself incapable to answer, dumbfounded by the familiarity of it all.

 

“The case went badly, and as you see, this is where we are now.” Kris sneers sorely. “Because he feels like he’s broken a promise that he made with himself.”

“That’s…”

“Silly, but too late.” the elder man broods, serious as ever. “Baek, don’t make the same mistake… If you have the chance to have something, don’t delay. Don’t postpone. Don’t wait for  it to slip out of your hands.”

“You can still solve this,” Baekhyun stammers brokenly, “Yixing, I mean...If he knows that you just want to be with him, regardless of what he’s done…”

“Maybe.” Kris smiles without joy, “I am trying everything I can anyhow. Which is why you’ll have to forgive my terrible timing, Baek…If Yixing is destabilized during the trial, I won’t apologize.”

 

Baekhyun scoffs, smiling in disbelief as he clenches his fists and shakes his head.

 

“I suppose that you really are a part of Smith&Harolds now,” he mocks. “Sabotaging your opponent’s team, whilst solving your own personal problems, huh.”

Kris smiles: “A man must learn to balance out his professional benefits with his private interests.”

“You’re just trying to mix work and love together again.”

 

Kris shrugs, flipping the can in his hand once more.

 

“It’s a vicious circle, really. Once you start, it’s impossible to stop.”

“Just use your willpower.”

“Should have done that ages ago. Now it’s a bit too late, isn’t it?”

 

Baekhyun agrees but stays silent. He doesn’t have the heart to smile anymore.

 

 

*

 

 

 

Chanyeol calls the elevator and stands back, waiting for the metallic doors to open as it comes down from the seventh floor of the building to the ground floor. The Department of Litigation and Dispute Resolution is on the eighth floor, a daunting walk that he is reluctant to make. Back in Smith&Harolds, his department used to be on the second, and he would simply opt to take the stairs up every morning. But that was part of the past already. A past that seemed very distant now.

 

The doors open and he stares at his own reflection in the mirror inside the elevator. Baekhyun hated elevators, but had to take it every day. He dredges up the elder man’s peaceful sleeping form from his memory, breathing softly against his chest with his jacket around his shoulders; then remembers his twisted, livid face of this morning and closes his eyes, blinking the image away. The metallic doors shut again.

 

Chanyeol turns towards the stairs and starts climbing.

 

He has barely reached the third floor that the glass doors on his left open wide, revealing a tiny Kyungsoo, in an ordinary suit this time, coming through with wide-eyed restlessness. As the senior associate sees him, he jolts and reaches for his arm, looking more than glad to see him there.

 

“Good thing you’re here,” he starts without greetings. “I need Baekhyun, do you know where he’s gone?”

“Oh, he’s…” Chanyeol hesitates, then smiles brightly and shakes his head. “He’s busy at the moment. I’m sorry, I don’t know where he went.”

“Oh.” Kyungsoo’s face falls. “Well, that’s unhelpful.”

“Sorry…Maybe he went to court.”

“Well, I can’t go out and search for him just like that, can I?” the younger associate scrunches his nose, looking troubled. “This is rather annoying. I really need to see him.”

“If you have a message, maybe I could pass it on to him when he comes back to the office.” Chanyeol offers and Kyungsoo gives him a glance.

 

“I guess you could,” he says after considering him for a while. “You’re his partner, after all.”

“Is this about the HaiLong case?”

“Yes, it is,” Kyungsoo starts seriously, putting his hands in his pocket. “Remember my theory on the break in the causation chain?”

“Uh, yeah?”

“Well. I found out something really important about it...”

 

 

*

 

Baekhyun returns to the department when Chanyeol had already gone, and finds the workplace completely empty, apart from the cleaners sweeping the office floor after official work hours. He passes by Tao’s old desk and picks up the small key ring that the trainee used to carry around the office… Tao had officially left the firm now. After the Shanghai trip he had given his resignation letter and finally opted to depart from the path of law – Suho had even shed a few tears about it. It was a sad parting. But all in all, maybe Tao is happier now that he does not have to be a lawyer anymore. Baekhyun hangs the key ring on the corner of the ex-trainee’s computer screen and walks off, dragging himself tiredly towards his own office. On the way there, the sound of muffled chatter reaches his ears. The two secretaries are still at their desks, looking morose and tired.  

 

“Are you sure you’re not coming anymore?” Luhan asks lightly whilst searching for his stapler. “I thought you said you didn’t see the movie either.”

“I’ve got plans on Saturday in the end.”

“Is it a lady?” the elder man smiles.

“No. Just…family reunion kind of thing.”

“Oh.” Luhan looks confused. “Okay…”

“Just watch it with Jongin, I’m sure you’ll be fine.” the other man mumbles inarticulately.

“Jongin says he might not be able to come, depending on how the trial day goes…” Luhan puckers his lips. The stapler clacks. “Besides, you know how he’s always a little uncomfortable when we go to socials, right? Sometimes I don’t know what to say to him when we’re alone...He stutters a lot. I wonder if he’s just socially awkward.”

Sehun looks down at his keyboard, then back up at him.

“He just likes you, you know.”

“I like him too, don’t be mistaken!” Luhan hurriedly says, horrified. “He’s really kind, and helpful and a great guy who’s amazing at what he does. I just think it’d be good if he just relaxed sometimes…”

“That’s what I’m saying,” Sehun mutters. “He _likes_ you. He can’t relax, because he likes you; not as a friend, but as…like, as…you.”

 

Luhan stares blankly at him.

 

“Jongin doesn’t give a shit about romantic comedies,” Sehun says tiredly. “That was just him trying to spend time with you.”

“He doesn’t like romantic movies?”

“Maybe he does; fuck, that’s not the point…The point is that this bastard wants to watch it with you because he’s been in love with you for ages.”

“Then why didn’t he just say so? How am I supposed to know that he fancies me if he doesn’t tell it to my face or at least show some kind of sign…”

“He’s been asking you out for _years_.”

 

Luhan looks mildly dismayed.

“For years? Really…?”

 

Baekhyun does not stay to hear the rest. Drained and dizzy, he rubs his face, changes direction and ends up leaving the office without returning to his desk.

 

 

 

That night, he calls Chanyeol to apologize. But when the younger man’s voice answers on the other end of the line, Baekhyun stops, mute, incapable of saying anything.

 

“Baekhyun…?”  Chanyeol’s deep voice starts softly. “Hello?”

 

The elder man sits on his bed, phone limply pressed against his ear.

 

“Hello? Baek.” Chanyeol whispers again. “What’s wrong…?”

“I…” he starts, so quietly that the other man does not hear him. “I’m sorry.”

 

There is a pause, a silence, then Chanyeol’s voice picks up again.

 

“Baek…?”

“I’m sorry.” Baekhyun finds his tongue at last. “I didn’t want to disturb you. Are you busy…?”

The other man’s reply comes after a short silence, gentle and slightly husky in its softness.

“You didn’t. I was just going to go to bed.”

“So early…?”

“It’s been a long day. I’m tired.”

“Oh.” the elder man bites his lower lip. “I’m sorry.”

“You should get some rest too...I’ll see you tomorrow?”

 

Baekhyun doesn’t reply, he can’t bring himself to. After a long break, Chanyeol’s breath grizzles against his ear.

 

“Baek…I know that your outburst from this morning was due to stress.”

“That’s not it, it’s just...I’m not ready. I’m really not ready for the trial, Chanyeol.”

 

There is a silence at the other end.

 

“Baek, we all have to make difficult choices every now and then. You don’t need to doubt yourself because of what other people say.”

“But what if this involves other people’s interests…?” Baekhyun murmurs. “What if the choices I make aren’t only about me, but about other people too?”

“You can’t escape from making choices, Baekhyun,” Chanyeol replies, “No one can. Sometimes, we just have to choose and then assume the consequences.”

“I’m scared of the consequences.”

“We all hurt others without wanting to. Your life is your own. Don’t come back on your decisions for the sake of someone else.”

“I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

“That’s not what a lawyer should say.”

 

Baekhyun swallows hard and almost jolts when Chanyeol whispers again:

“Don’t come back on your decisions because of me.”

 

The elder associate purses his lips, tightening his grip on his phone as he takes a deep breath.

 

“I feel like I’ve wronged you by asking you to wait,” he sighs at last. “I didn’t want us to owe each other anything. But by asking you to wait for me, I’ve gotten us into a standstill and I don’t want that.”

“You just did what you thought would be rational.”

“It’s just unnecessary pressure…”

“Baek…” Chanyeol interrupts, sounding serious. “The HaiLong case and us are two different stories. Alright? You shouldn’t think that the outcome of one depends on the other…”

 

Baekhyun doesn’t reply right away and looks outside the window instead.

 

“We might have to replace Yixing during the trial if he can’t hold on,” he finally says, changing the subject.

“Do you want me to do it…?” Chanyeol asks.

“No. I’ll do it. It’s fine. I’ll prepare in advance…We have two days for that.”

“Alright. It’s up to you.”

 

There is a small huff at the other end, and Baekhyun realises that Chanyeol is chuckling.

 

“What’s so funny…?” he frowns.

“I’m just remembering the first time I saw you in court. I wasn’t part of the litigation team, that time, my colleagues and I just watched you from the tribunes.”

“What about it?”

“You looked very short from up there…”

“Shut up.”

“But I’ve looked up to you since then.” Chanyeol’s smile shines through his voice. “It was the first time I had seen someone who was so good and so self-confident, yet down-to-earth enough that he wasn’t arrogant. I could see how much you loved what you do, and how tall you could stand by yourself because of that… It made me realize what _I_ lacked. Self-esteem, self-respect, and confidence to be as detached and independent as you are...”

 

Baekhyun hesitates, feeling his chest constrict and his breaths becoming more painful. It is a while before Chanyeol lets out another laugh.

 

“Did I make you uncomfortable again…?”

“No. I just…never realized you thought all that.” Baekhyun admits reluctantly.

“I’ve looked up to you for a very long time, you know. Back in the days, my colleagues and I used to call you ‘Napoleon Byunaparte’.”  

“That’s a revolting nickname.”

“It’s been a long time since then...” Chanyeol laughs. “I can just call you ‘Baek’, now, can’t I? It’s been a long way, but it was worth the wait.”

 

Baekhyun chortles against his will.

 

“You tell me.”

“Anyways: All this to say that you don’t have to worry about me... Because I can wait for as long as it takes, really.”

“I don’t want you to blame me if we fail.”

“Don’t say that.”

“No, I’m serious.” Baekhyun whispers. “You’re always so patient with me, I’m scared that I am abusing your patience and your kindness.”

“Patience is all I have.” Chanyeol snorts. “Believe me when I say this, Baek; you’re the better one out of us two.”

 

Somehow, Baekhyun has trouble believing it. But the younger man sounds very solemn as he says so, and his voice is soft when he speaks up again:

 

“Goodnight, Baekhyun.”

“Yes, goodnight. Sorry for the call.”

“That’s okay... I love you.”

 

The elder man tries to reply, but when he opens his mouth, the line has already disconnected, leaving him hanging in the silence, alone, tense, and unnervingly cold.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> N/A: Approximately 4 more chapters to go. Almost there ;__; Thank you loads for reading so far!


	11. 11

**11.**

“Tell me you’re not lying!”

“Baek, stop, it doesn’t make sense.”

“No, I don’t trust him,” Baekhyun pushes Yixing away and glares at the wide-eyed man in front of him as he yells: “ _Tell me you’re not_ _lying_!”

 

He is enraged. He knows. He is enraged and loud and livid, but he has every right to be, now that they are out of the courtroom and far away from the tribunal, now that their team is gathered alone in the subterranean parking lot of the firm and that this dreadful first day of trial is finally coming to an end…he has every right to shout and be angry.

 

 

 

His mind reels back to when they got into the car this morning. When everything was still alright. When the trial had not actually started yet... He can’t believe that he didn't see any of it coming; when they arrived at the tribunal, when the client representatives came in, when they greeted the clerks and the in-house lawyers; the jury, the witnesses and the trial judge…

Nothing.

He had seen absolutely nothing.

 

Then the trial started and Minho opened his mouth, and he felt like the entire sky had crashed down on his shoulders.

 

“It could be submitted by the defendants,” the lawyer said, “that there was a break in causation chain when the cargo was loaded onto the defendant’s ship, as the very composition of the pharmaceutical products contained in the cargo made it dangerous for the ship to bring the boxes safely to their destination… However, we would submit on behalf of the plaintiffs that even so, there should be no break in the causation chain, since the plaintiffs had already listed all the components of the products to the employees of the defendants before handing them over.”

“Hang on a second,” Baekhyun jerked in his chair, outraged. “Why the fuck is he talking about causation…?”

But Jongin, Yixing and Chanyeol looked just as shocked as him.

“We never put that in our brief.” Baekhyun continued in a loud whisper. “He shouldn’t even know about -”

“Baek, you’re being too loud,” Chanyeol hissed.

The elder man only trembled, looking at Yixing, who was frantically flipping through their copy of the merit briefs, now, the gawkiness of being in the same courtroom as Kris completely forgotten.

“Did we put anything in there?” he asked.

 

But the Chinese barrister, having scanned the pages, looked back at him with alarm and shook his head.

 

“Hence,” Minho continued, undisturbed, “it was the defendant’s responsibility to ensure that the cargo was safe to travel according to the products listed by the plaintiffs, and we have witnesses present to prove that they were indeed aware of this.”

“Just a point of information…” the judge slowly lifted his pen and pointed in the lawyer’s direction, “as counsel for the plaintiffs, you are rebutting an argument about a break in the causation chain. But I see nothing in the merit brief submitted by the counsel for the defendants that could even suggest such a thing.”

“Yes,” Minho smiled, staring squarely into Baekhyun’s eyes, “hence, the usage of the word ‘could’. As I said, the defendants _could_ wish to argue such a thing. But if they indeed do, we have witnesses to counter any allegations they may have on this point.”

“What a bastard…” Baekhyun breathed.

“Baek.”

 

He felt Chanyeol’s hand close around his wrist, harshly signalling him to shut up. The HaiLong representatives were already glaring holes into their backs, whispering tensely between themselves. Swallowing his anger, Baekhyun grabbed a pen and scribbled his objections down while Yixing continued to hover over their brief, and Jongin urgently amended his submissions with Chanyeol now that their opponents had guessed their argument.

 

But how had they guessed…?

 

Baekhyun’s mind whirled, and as it whirled, anger started to creep through his every nerve, paralyzing him, poisoning him and numbing him from the inside for the rest of the trial. It subsisted even after Jongin successfully delayed the hearing of objections to the following Monday; it crushed him while the judge dismissed them, it matured further when the client representatives finished shouting at them for their incompetence... It subsisted when Kris tried to talk to Yixing and the Chinese barrister recoiled into their car with only a bare nod of acknowledgement…

 

It subsisted and grew larger when they finally left, and parked their car back into Lighthouse Pinson’s parking lot.

 

_How had they guessed?_

He seized Chanyeol’s arm and shoved him to one side of the car, pushing him violently away from him when the taller man tried to hold his hand with a confused look. Now, Jongin’s alarmed voice sounds muffled in his ear. Now, he is deaf to it. He is irate. He knows how they ‘guessed’ it, and it burns him from the inside.

 

“You did it, didn’t you?” Baekhyun barks at Chanyeol, furious. “You leaked it. You leaked the plan to those bastards, and they tossed it right back at us before we could even make a start…”

The younger man looks terrified.

“What…?”

“Just tell me,” he shouts, grabbing Chanyeol’s collar, ignoring Yixing’s shocked gasp. “Did you do it or did you not?”

“Baekhyun, what the fuck?” Jongin grabs his arm.

“How else would they have known so much in so little time?” Baekhyun glares at the younger barrister, then back at Chanyeol. “He must have told them. All those months, shadowing us, spying on us for your own playmates’ benefits, getting all the detailed information you needed…must have been quite convenient!”

“Baekhyun, that’s stupid.” Yixing pleads and pulls him back. “You know it is.”

“Then you want me to believe that Smith&Harolds just _guessed_ our entire plan of attack out of nowhere?” he snarls. “You better be kidding. That’s three months of hard work, research, and elaboration – gone! Gone because of one fucking leak! Now we have three days until the hearing of objections, and we don’t even have a decent objection to make to get us out of this pinch.”

“Yes, there _was_ a leak!” Jongin screams. “But to think that it’s Chanyeol, that’s just ridiculous-”

“Well, who else?! An ex-Smith&Harolds lawyer-”

“Baekhyun, you stop this right now or you’re going to regret it.” the barrister warns.

“Baek…” Chanyeol looks dismayed. “I didn’t leak it to them.”

“Then, look at me in the eye and tell me you’re not lying,” Baekhyun shakes.

“What…”

“Tell me you’re not lying!”

“Baek, stop, it doesn’t make sense!”

“No, I don’t trust him,” Baekhyun pushes Yixing away and glares at the wide-eyed man in front of him as he yells: “ _Tell me you’re not lying!_ ”

 

For a long time, Chanyeol only stares at him, as if lost for words, and it seems to Baekhyun that fear mixes with genuine pain in the younger man’s eyes. He looks straight into Baekhyun’s quavering pupils and shakes his head, steady and resolute.

 

“I didn’t leak the information to Smith&Harolds,” he declares calmly.

 

Baekhyun lets out the breath he was holding. He searches Chanyeol’s eyes one last time, but the younger man holds his gaze unwaveringly. There is nothing. Chanyeol is not lying.

 

“Well, fuck. Baekhyun…” Jongin mutters with a deep sigh. “That was really uncalled for.”

 

Baekhyun turns towards him, but the barrister is already heading towards the parking lot lifts, rubbing his neck tiredly. Yixing gives Baekhyun a hesitant look, then, with an apologetic nod, gathers their files and excuses himself.

 

There is only Chanyeol and him left next to the car. Chanyeol, him, and the burning sensation of their failure today.

 

Baekhyun takes a deep breath, unable to look the younger man in the eye. He can’t move. He can’t talk. He flinches when the other lawyer speaks:

 

“Are you going to say something?”

 

The elder man remains still, averting his gaze.

 

Chanyeol makes no move.

 

“If you’re not going to say anything, then let’s go back.”

“Chanyeol.”

The other man turns, expectant.

“Chanyeol, we…we failed today.” Baekhyun states.

“I am sorry.”

“That’s not going to change anything. Whether you’re sorry or I’m sorry…the fact remains that Smith&Harolds beat us today and we only have three days to find a brand new line of attack. The hearing of objections is our last chance before the jury reaches a decision.”

“No,” Chanyeol breathes, “I am sorry because that’s all you can think of.”

 

And when Baekhyun finally raises his head, he notices the younger man has tears brimming in the corner of his eyes. The sight hits Baekhyun right in the stomach.

 

He feels sick.

 

“Chanyeol.”

“Don’t say anything.” the younger man grimaces, shaking his head, “Just…give me time to handle it by myself.”

“No, Chanyeol, wait. I didn’t want to-”

“Stop.” Chanyeol huffs. “Seriously, Baek. Stop. It only makes this harder. Please…Please let me take care of this myself. I will sort it out.”

“I don’t want you to be hurt.”

“This isn’t a matter of what you want and don’t want,” Chanyeol smiles without joy, turning his back and walking towards the lifts.

 

Baekhyun opens his mouth; reaches out to grab him by the back of his suit…but somehow, the weight in his legs clamp him down to the ground. He feels heavy and cold, the constricting chains in his chest refuse to let go. Soon, they close around his throat and silence him completely, strangling him and consuming him. He knows he has gone way too far this time. And guilt, he realizes, is a terrifying feeling.

 

“Fuck…” he curses, covering his face. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

 

But the swearing brings him no satisfaction whatsoever. They are just empty words, holding no consolation, no meaning, no remedy to the seeping fear which oozes its way through his veins. He doesn’t have faith in himself anymore.  

 

 

*

*

*

 

“Come and see me in my office,” Suho says the next morning when Baekhyun arrives.

The associate follows him dutifully into the brightly lit room, but queries as soon as he closes the door: “Where’s Chanyeol?”

“Not here. He took a sick leave.” Suho is not smiling like he usually does. In fact, he looks utterly disenchanted. “I don’t think you need me to tell you why he did that.”

“Because he’s sick?” Baekhyun tries, and regrets it thoroughly when he sees the glare that the partner gives him.

“Officially, yes. He’s coming back in the afternoon for your meeting, though.”

 

When the younger man says nothing, Suho leans against his desk and crosses his arms.

“Do you know,” he starts, and for the first time since Baekhyun’s known him, he sounds genuinely annoyed, “that we’ve just been pestered non-stop by HaiLong’s representatives since yesterday evening, asking us one, constant, obstinate question: How much it’s going to cost us if we don’t get them out of this mess?” he stares severely. “Baekhyun, look at me. Do you know what happened in that courtroom yesterday?”

“Yes.”

“Then go on. Tell me.”

“We almost lost the case on the spot. If Jongin hadn’t managed to postpone the hearing of objections to Monday, we would have been humiliated right there and then.”

“And do you know why that happened?”

“Because Smith&Harolds rebutted our arguments before we could even use them.”

“And why was that an issue?” Suho lingers on every word. “Because we had no plan B. Because we were over-confident.”

 

Baekhyun looks down at the ground and bites his lips.

 

“It’s my fault. I’ll take responsibility for it.”

“No you won’t.” Suho shakes his head, looking more austere than ever as the associate raises perplexed eyes at him, “Do you see the problem now, Baek?  Do you see _your_ problem? You’ve become weak. You’ve become lazy…The Baekhyun I used to know would have jumped up and taken action. He wouldn’t have apologized to me first, he would have been out there looking for a solution, even if it was hopeless.”

 

Baekhyun feels his lower lip tremble, because the partner’s expression is now filled with disappointment.

 

“When I paired you up with Chanyeol, it wasn’t for you to lose everything that made you the best lawyer I’ve ever seen. Do you really think that I only care about the HaiLong case? It’s not all about that case, Baek. It’s you I’m talking about.”

“Are you saying that Chanyeol ruins me…?”

“No, I’m saying that you’re ruining yourself,” Suho comes closer and shakes him by the shoulder. “Wake up, Baek. Love isn’t supposed to make you weak. If anything, it should make you stronger and you know that right now, you’re just letting yourself down by indulging in self-pity.”

“I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do anymore,” Baekhyun shuts his eyes momentarily, feeling his voice break against his will. “Ever since this case started, I have been in control of nothing. Instead, I’ve just been making mistake after mistake… It’s like I’ve fallen back to what I used to be. Insecure…impulsive…rash…scared...”

“And you think it’s Chanyeol’s fault?”

“Well, I don’t know, do I?” the younger man raises his eyes. “It’s like I want to rely on him, but then push him away at the same time…He reminds me of things I don’t want to think about. I love him, then I hate him, then both, all at once...”

“Well, then you’ve seen something in him which reminds you of yourself,” Suho drops flatly with a shrug, “That’s how it usually works... But this shouldn’t change who you are and what you can do,  Baekhyun. You’ve been too lenient on yourself these past few months, and _that’s_ what ruins you. You had a team to lead, and you showed them a damn pitiful example, by accusing one of your own teammates without any evidence, in front of everyone.”

 

The younger man stares into his superior’s eyes, discovering all the concern and the gravity of the situation there.

 

“There _was_ a leak,” Suho states, folding his arms over his chest, “and we have three days to discover where it came from, on top of finding an argument to rebut Smith &Harolds’ submission during the hearing on Monday. Three days, Baekhyun. That’s not much.”

“I’ll…I’ll do what I can.”

“No, I’ll be the one doing the work, this time.” the partner sighs, grabbing his keys. “You spend some time reflecting over what went wrong, and getting over your issue with Chanyeol.”

Baekhyun opens wide, astonished eyes.

“Suho…!”

“Don’t blame me,” the elder man interjects, looking both sorry and exhausted. “The managerial board’s eyes are all set on our department now, they’re expecting us to fail. It’s not something that I can just leave aside anymore, pretending that everything’s alright when things are clearly getting out of hand. I can entrust cases to people who are motivated and ready to do the job; not people who can’t even figure themselves out… Before you get yourself together, this case is out of your hands, Baek.”

The younger lawyer gapes, too shocked to move, his body refusing to budge. He is dumbfounded, but Suho leaves him no time to recover. He grabs his jacket from the coat hanger and strides towards the exit.

 

“Lastly, and it really pains me to have to say this,” the elder man begins before he reaches the door, and turns one last time towards Baekhyun: “I’m afraid we’ll have to forget about that upcoming partner position, now. So just scratch that.”

 

His tone is apologetic, Baekhyun can hear it well. But he does not dither when he opens the door, leaving him alone in the office as he walks out of the room with his jacket over his shoulder. When the door slams shut, Baekhyun spends a few minutes just standing in front of Suho’s desk, unmoving, registering everything that had just happened in the last mere quarter of an hour. He then inhales slowly. Clenches his fists and unclenches them. Even his muscles feel sore from such a meagre exercise.

 

He then heaves a deep sigh and walks out, stumbling into the broad office corridor with wide, haggard eyes. From the coffee machine’s area, Jongin and Luhan step in. But when they notice his presence, the barrister turns slightly reticent, and only gives him a quick nod before passing him by. Luhan only sends him a confused look instead, then runs after Jongin and calls out cautiously:

“Wait, Jongin. There’s something we need to talk about…”   

 

Baekhyun leaves them both and enters into his own office, where Chanyeol’s empty desk taunts him like an open provocation.

 

 

For thirty minutes, he sits down and works on one of his old on-going project. But soon, even this seems fake to him and he gives up, standing back up with his wallet and phone in hand, and heading out of the department.

 

“Where are you going?” Minseok inquires timidly when he walks past him.

 

But Baekhyun doesn’t say anything in return. He simply needs some fresh air; that is all he needs. He doesn’t even mind the ride in the elevator down to the ground floor. He is too tired to think.

 

 

 

 

The streets outside the building are already a liberation to him but it is not enough, and soon Baekhyun finds himself wandering towards the nearest park, taking his suit jacket off to look less conspicuous amongst the various strolling pedestrians. He doesn’t know what he expects by going there, really… He has no appointment with Kris. No purpose to meet by ambling all by himself in all this greenery. It is a busy day, too, and students are all out, sitting on the grass, taking up the benches…People are walking their dogs and doing their jogging up the pathways…He passes by the spot that Kris and he usually take and continues walking without looking back. Meanwhile, he wonders where Chanyeol is, right now; whether he is still mad? Or still hurt?

 

After yesterday, Baekhyun knows he has every right to be either of those.

 

He is drifting  up a small alley near the park’s pond when he notices a tall figure slumped over one of the benches far away, facing the water. Amongst the strolling students and the wandering families, that figure sticks out like a sore thumb, silly ears protruding on both sides of his head, huge eyes looking morosely at the pond in front of him.

 

The person does not notice Baekhyun’s presence, but Baekhyun feels his heart stop all the same.

 

He raises his hand instinctively to wave, but on the bench, Chanyeol doesn’t move, still staring blankly at the surface of the water and the ducks waddling in it.

 

“Chan…” Baekhyun calls out softly, then stops as the younger man suddenly raises his head. For a second, his eyes move towards him, searching in the flux of people walking up and down the wide alley before settling upon him. Baekhyun tries to smile. He waves for real, this time, bashfully, and waits for an answer.

 

Chanyeol stares, then waves as well, with a placid smile. Baekhyun’s breath catches in his throat.

 

“Chanyeol…” he beams, feeling pathetic again.

 

And then, he brakes, blinking, because from somewhere close to him, a woman has nudged her way through the many families gathering near the pond and is now walking up to Chanyeol without hesitation. The younger lawyer stands up as she arrives, cordially shakes her hand and throws a scanning glance around him before inviting her to sit down next to him. Baekhyun frowns, suddenly growing colder. When the woman sits down and shows her face, he feels a fist digging into his stomach, grabbing his insides and twisting them mercilessly.

 

He knows that woman.

 

That woman is Jung Soojung, the in-house lawyer for the plaintiff company in the HaiLong case.

 

As he watches on helplessly, Baekhyun observes her expression change from amusement to disdain, interest to indifference while Chanyeol speaks, his features both impassive and serious. No cheerful grin. No friendly smile. He is nothing like the gentle, clumsy idiot that Baekhyun knows. Instead, when Soojung shrugs carelessly and hands him a file that Chanyeol takes back coolly, he is dark and grim like a complete stranger.

 

She leaves a few minutes later in the opposite direction, and Chanyeol stands up unhurriedly to pick up his bag. He is not in a suit, Baekhyun notices. Not looking sick or nauseous either, as a matter of fact. Scoffing in disbelief, he turns his phone on and dials the younger man’s number.

 

Chanyeol picks up only after a long time, sounding much warmer than he actually looks.

 

“…Hello?”

“Hi,” Baekhyun clears his throat, keeping his eyes on the gawky silhouette facing the pond. “It’s me. Are you alright?”

There is a silence, before Chanyeol speaks.

“What do you mean by…alright?”

“I heard you took a sick leave.”

“Oh. Oh, yes…Yes, I’ll be back in the afternoon, don’t worry. It’s just an indigestion…”

“I see. Are you at home, right now?”

“Yeah. Why…?”

 

Baekhyun shuts his eyes, snorting against his will.

 

“No, you’re not.”

 

Chanyeol freezes at the tone, glancing around him in complete confusion, before finally seeing Baekhyun – seeing him for good, this time, his expression turning to pure, blood-chilling astonishment. It is kind of satisfying, Baekhyun thinks. Satisfying and excruciating, too; to see this face he thought he knew so well show him an expression that he thought he would never have to see.

  

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> N/A: Annnnd there we go dundundun. I've been wanting to write this chunk for ages... The plot probably became obvious half-way through the chapter though, so sorry about that. Either way, only 3 chapters to go!
> 
> Kudos and comments will always be loved, even anons :)


	12. 12

**12.**

Chanyeol makes a move to hide the documents in his hands, but Baekhyun storms on him and snatches it first, flipping through it angrily and leering at the younger man in utter disbelief. He then shoves the papers into Chanyeol’s chest, letting the younger man fumble as he scoffs and glares.

“I can’t believe this.” he murmurs. “All the details of Kyungsoo’s research…gathered in a single case-note.”

 

Chanyeol is so pale that he looks about to faint. It looks kind of pitiful - such a tall, sturdy guy, being so damn weak and pathetic.

“Are you going to explain?” Baekhyun narrows his eyes, feeling his heart running wild. “ _Are_ _you_? Because _I_ think this damn right needs an explanation.”

The younger man is still unnervingly silent, and Baekhyun soon explodes. “Are you at least going to say something?!”

“What,” Chanyeol snaps dryly, looking both ill and defiant. “What do you want me to say?”

Baekhyun is incredulous.

“Huh…?”

“I can’t say anything. Because it’s just as you imagine it to be.”

The elder lawyer falters, his heart sinking and his eyes prickling him.

“You better be kidding, I swear to God…”

“I’m not. I can’t justify myself.”

“So what,” Baekhyun laughs coldly, “that Soojung, she was really here for…for…”

“For the case-note, yes. I lent it to her, and she gave it back to me, because some of those were original material, as you could see.”

“So the leak -”

Chanyeol bites his lips.

“That was me.”

“You looked at me in the eye, and _lied_.”

“Didn’t technically lie,” Chanyeol retorts wryly, though a little green in the face, “Soojung’s from the client’s side, not Smith&Harolds, so-”

“Oh my God – I am going to kill you.”

He makes a move to punch the other man right in the nose, but stops just in time, his fist raised dangerously above the younger man’s face. There are a thousand things he needs to do as soon as possible; the first is to kick Chanyeol in the nuts. The second is to run back to the office and warn everyone about the source of the leak so that they can try to save whatever is left of their pitiful strategy, the third is to curl up into a corner and cry his eyes out.

 

He does none of them for the moment being. He needs to know why first.

 

Why.

 

 _Why_. This is so unfair...

 

“You lied,” Baekhyun stammers, “You fucking lied, played it nice and smooth with me all this time, making me think you were a decent human being…What was it for? All this scheming – was it for your dad? You were doing all of this to please Daddy? Is that it?”

“Look…” Chanyeol drivels. “Baekhyun, I just…”

“How _old are_ you?” the elder man rumbles, shaking. “You are a grown man with a job for Christ’s sake, how can you let your father rule your life – tell you what to do – you…”

“I wanted to prove that I could do it…!”

“Do what?”

“Be cruel.” Chanyeol breathes, looking mortified. “Be ruthless… A bit like him.”

 

Baekhyun is flabbergasted.

 

“You told me he stifled you,” he muttered. “Please. You can’t possibly _want_ to be like him.

“But what if I did?” Chanyeol stutters, “What if all my life, I’ve wanted to be like him but never could - what if this one time, I’ve wanted to try…”

“Oh my God, just stop talking!”

The elder man pulls at his hair, bewildered and quailed by the ridicule of it all: The case of the decade, the biggest commercial litigation they have had for ages, ruined by one insensitive idiot who has decided to do his teenage crisis with ten years’ delay.

“Out of all the bad jokes I’ve ever heard, this is the worst.” Baekhyun screams.

“You, out of all people, should understand…!” Chanyeol shouts back. “It’s not because you’ve been hurt by someone that you can sever your ties with them from one day to the next! It’s not that easy a thing to do… I can’t get him out of my life, when I have been under his influence for as long as I can remember. I-It’s not…”

“No. Screw this all. Stop talking.”

“It’s not easy…” the younger man falters. “Baekhyun, please, I need your help…”

“ _My_ help?” Baekhyun turns, outraged.

 

That is it. Forgetting all restraints, he punches the younger man straight in the stomach and steps back when the lawyer falls to his knees, holding his sides in agony. Oddly satisfied, and vaguely conscious that people are staring worriedly at them now, Baekhyun stumbles backwards and pants.

 

“That’s all you’re going to get from me, you man child!” he crashes. “And don’t get up from there or I’ll make sure you lose all your front teeth too.”

Chanyeol groans, eyes closed, and Baekhyun uses the opportunity to grab the discarded case-note from the floor.

“If you have the nerve to come back to the office, I’m skinning you alive.” he wheezes.

 

But when he turns around to leave the park, and eventually makes it back to the firm with the creased case-note in his arms, his nerves finally let go, and he bursts into ugly, violent tears, crumbling down on his knees and falling apart. When Jongdae comes back from his early lunch break, he finds him slumped unresponsively against the fire escape door, sobbing so much that his face gets cramped and stained. Instead of standing up, Baekhyun hangs onto the younger man and wails some more. He cries until he has no tears left.

 

*

 

 

“Sorry about your suit, man,” Baekhyun sighs.

Jongdae waits until he is sat next to him to answer, passing a hand through his curly mop of hair.

“Oh that’s okay, don’t worry about it. You’re the one who looks most shaken, to be honest. Are you feeling better, now?”

“I’m fine. Just…angry.” the elder man exhales.

“I’m still a little shocked by what you’ve told us,” Jongdae frowns. “Chanyeol, Smith&Harolds’s client – how did that even happen...?”

 

Around them, the division is pure chaos. Jongin is off to warn Suho about their new situation, Yixing and Sehun try to lock down every file to which Chanyeol had access, while Luhan writes urgently to their contacts in Shanghai. Considering the scale of this slip, the responsibility is likely to shift away from their department to that of legal recruitment team, and Baekhyun might just be able to get back onto the case if he tried hard enough. Simply, he doesn’t know if he wants to have anything to do with the matter anymore.

 

He plays nervously with the paper cup in his hand and looks at Jongdae in mild disgust.

“I feel cheated.”

“I know,” the other man sighs, rubbing his temple with raised eyebrows. “I feel cheated too,” he thinks, then adds: “on a lighter degree, I suppose.”

“I can’t believe I was dumb enough to fall for this insensitive bastard’s trick.”

“It’s not your fault, Baek.”

“No,” Baekhyun snarls, “I know you want me to feel better, but right now I just-”

“Calm down, Baek,” Jongdae says very tranquilly. “ _I_ _know_.”

 

Baekhyun stares irately at him for a moment, then eventually falls back over his cup, sulking, feeling horrendously hollow. He just wants to crawl back into bed.  Forget about everything – forget about Chanyeol, mostly. Man, that guy can go to Hell.  

 

“When and how are we going to fire him?” he asks irritably after a while.

“How? For gross misconduct, I suppose. When, I don’t know,” the other associate thinks, “but that’s not our main concern, is it? We’ve got to save the damn case first.”

“What can we do, though? Christ, the whole case was in that file he gave to the plaintiffs’ in-house lawyers. The details of our research. Our evidence…Just thinking about it gives me a headache.”

“You can’t just give up.”

“Suho took me off the case,” Baekhyun glares. “What else do you want me to do?”

 

Jongdae opens his mouth, but something behind Baekhyun’s back catches his attention and he stands up under the elder man’s confused eyes, motioning for him to wait.

“Be right back,” he says and leaves towards the entrance. “Minseok’s just arrived.”

 

Baekhyun doesn’t reply and simply contemplates his hands, conscientiously tearing the border of his paper cup. He jolts slightly when Sehun sits in front of him, a pile of letters in his hands and his letter opener between his lips. As usual, he is expressionless, and yet, Baekhyun feels a little sorry when he recognizes the secretary’s face, young and seemingly indifferent, but a little sad on the edge. He didn’t think his heart could sink any lower than it already has, and yet, it does.

 

“Hi,” he says.

“Hmm,” Sehun mumbles through his lips, stacking the letters on one side before letting the letter opener drop into his palm.

Silently, he takes one envelope and slits it open under Baekhyun’s contrite eyes.

“You’re…not helping Yixing anymore?”

“The IT guys arrived,” the secretary explains, flipping through its content and filing it away. “Not going to waste all my fucking time on that, there’s still our usual crap to get rid of.”

Baekhyun stares at him with a ball in his throat.

“I’m sorry, Sehun.”

 

The secretary raises his eyes, his gaze softening a little as it crosses Baekhyun’s. He throws the empty envelope away and takes another one.

 

“Why?”

“You hate office drama, but here we are with the biggest office drama of the decade,” the elder man bites his lips. “Chanyeol’s gone. Everyone’s panicked…And all of this happens right after I promised you that there wouldn’t be a repeat of Yixing and Kris’s story. I feel like a massive jerk.”

“That’s okay,” Sehun lets out serenely.

“What is? The fact that we’re a mess, or that I feel like a massive jerk?”

“Both.” the younger man hands him another letter opener, nudging him to give him a hand.

 

Baekhyun gladly indulges, grateful to have something to keep himself busy, at least.

 

“I knew something bad would happen anyways,” Sehun says after a period of time.

“Really?”

“You and him don’t really match,” he comments flatly. “You’re both stubborn, and neither of you know when to stop. Besides, it was really dumb of you to try to start a relationship when you were both supposed to be working on the same case... It was bound to be a catastrophe.”

“Thanks for the faith you have in my love life,” the associate grumbles, a cloud shrouding his face. “And the problem doesn’t lie there, alright? The only reason it didn’t work is because he is an asshole who was deceiving me from the start, to extract information from the firm and sell it to the opponent’s client. All that because of his stupid daddy complex – seriously what kind of respectable adult even has a daddy complex? It is outrageous…”

“I don’t think he was acting, though.”

“Uh, excuse me,” Baekhyun swings the letter opener, “why did you just have to lock down those files that Chanyeol accessed, again?”

“No, I meant that he wasn’t acting when he fell in love with you.” Sehun snaps, and the elder man frowns. “From what I see, you and the case were two different things for him. And even though he knew that he was only in Lighthouse Pinson to spy on us, all the things he said and felt for you were probably true. I think that he was hoping to keep you and the Hailong case separate, and that the feelings he harboured for you were actually unplanned, but genuine.”

 

Baekhyun stares blankly at him.

 

“You’re surprisingly talkative when you’re given the chance, aren’t you?”

Sehun shrugs.

“But that’s stupid,” the elder man carries on, huffing, “I was in charge of that case, what did he expect me to do? Date him even though he’s just screwed up my entire career development?”

“Well, technically you weren’t meant to know that he was a fucking mole.”

“Does that even make sense?” Baekhyun frowns, leaning forward, “So what, he was hoping to keep me…by _lying_? Deceiving me permanently and continuing to work here as if nothing happened? Please.”

“No, I think he was just calling for help.”

 

The senior associate hesitates.

 

“Say what…?”

“If he has a daddy complex as you say, it means he probably never tried to say no to his dad before, right?” Sehun continues drearily. “Meanwhile, you’re like…the epitome of self-sufficiency and independence, so by staying with you, he was probably hoping that he would get the courage to stop at some point...or to stand up for himself – fuck, I don’t know. He probably wanted you to help him somehow, but never dared to tell you the truth because he was scared of losing you.”

“Well, he lost me alright.”

“Unless you say ‘fuck this’, and turn the tables around.”

 

 Baekhyun stares at him, and the secretary looks up from his envelope.

“You can still win this case, right?”

“No, I can’t.” Baekhyun shakes his head, then frowns, “Even if I could, so what?”

“If you won the case, you could still give him a chance…I mean, he’d still get fired. But who cares…you can meet outside the firm.”

“Why would I even want to meet him again? He tried to screw me up! He tried to screw all of us up, he’s a fucking asshole who can’t even do the right thing even though he’s a grown up adult...”

“And you love him.”

“Yes, and I love…”

 

Baekhyun stops, his frown deepening by the second.

 

“Yeah. Well, _kind of_...Not really.”

“And the bastard loves you too.”

“I don’t think I want to give him this second chance, though.”

Sehun rolls his eyes.   

“Fine, you do what you want. Just don’t regret it later on when time slips away and you’re both too old to do anything about it; you’ll just be crinkled and bitter and drowning in remorse, and I’ll be laughing at you from my retirement home.”

 

After a moment of silence, Baekhyun puts his letter opener down and lets his hands rest on the table as he watches Sehun work, letting a small smile relax his features at last.

 

“Wise words really do come from the mouth of children, don’t they?”

 

The next instant, Sehun has pinned his hand to the table and slammed the letter opener right between his parted fingers. Within a second, Baekhyun’s neck is drenched with sweat.

 

“Was that really necessary…?” he winces.

“Your relationship with Chanyeol,” Sehun grunts, “is a make or break situation just like this.”

 

Baekhyun blinks at him in incredulity.

 

“So...so this was meant to be some kind of...illustration?”

“I think you two can either be a match made in heaven, or a mother fucking disaster.” Sehun slurs through his nose. “And I think whether you want it or not, a lot of it will depend on the outcome of the case.”

“Funny, isn’t it?” Baekhyun laughs dryly. “When that’s exactly what he didn’t want.”

 

Sehun doesn’t reply, suddenly grimacing at a distasteful payment bill he has just opened while the department’s glass door slowly swings opens, letting the sound of hurried footsteps shuffle across the carpet, waddling rapidly in their direction. Soon, a frantic Kyungsoo appears in their field of vision and they both turn to look at him, perplexed. The associate’s eyes look about to pop out of their sockets.

 

“Kyungsoo.” Baekhyun blinks. “Why are you here?”

“I heard about the whole leak, why else?” Kyungsoo bursts out, looking abnormally furious as he charges towards them. “You’re losing the case, aren’t you?”

“Well, about that-”

“Are you arguing on Monday again?”

“Not me, no, I won’t.” Baekhyun winces. “I’ve been put off the case.”

“What?”

“We got smashed during the proceedings.” He explains with a sigh, “You should have heard about it, right? All our arguments were leaked. Chanyeol was a mole. All our strategy’s down the drain, he sold everything. All your research. None of our submissions worked.”

“What about the breach in contract?”

“What breach in contract?”

 

Kyungsoo looks distracted for a second, the thoughts swirling in his eyes for a split second. His expression darkens.

 

“As I thought…”

“What?” Baekhyun frowns, glancing at Sehun, then back at the other associate. “What, Kyungsoo, what breach are you talking about?”

“I found Chanyeol, a few days ago,” Kyungsoo grimly explains. “I told him to tell you this as soon as possible, but considering that he’s a mole, he wouldn’t have said a thing, of course…There’s another argument that we can use to beat Smith&Harolds, Baek: The chemical component which caused the explosion is not only highly dangerous, but illegal…A recently enacted legislation prohibits its usage in Chinese and Taiwanese pharmaceutical products.”

“What-?”

“Listen to me!” Kyungsoo insists. “That component was almost undetectable, but it was still an unlawful substance at the time it was loaded onto Hailong’s ship. That means that the fact that the plaintiffs had it in their cargo was a breach of a condition of their contract with Hailong’s shipping company...”

“…which stipulated that they should not load anything unlawful aboard the ship, and that it was up to the plaintiff’s responsibility to ensure that their products complied with the relevant jurisdictions’ legal requirements.” Baekhyun finishes, wide-eyed. “Kyungsoo, this is genius!”

“It’s an even better argument than the whole causation chain one.” Kyungsoo says. “Since the plaintiffs were in breach of their contract since the start, Hailong is perfectly entitled to a counter-claim against them, so if Smith&Harolds’ client doesn’t want to lose big money, they will be very well advised to go for arbitration… Or to settle instead.”

“This is bad,” Baekhyun yells, jumping to his feet, “how did we not think of this, before? Shit. We need to tell everyone.”

“You can mention it during objections…” Kyungsoo exhales, looking exasperated. “But if Chanyeol’s a mole, and I already told him…”

“Then he might have sold that too, right?” Sehun mumbles.

“I don’t care,” the elder man pushes his chair away and re-arranges his shirt’s collar. “This is our only chance to turn this case around and we need to do something about it. If we just sit here and wait , we’re just asking to be beaten and we can’t allow this to happen.”

“What are you going to do, though? You’re not allowed to be on the case.”

 

Baekhyun pauses, troubled, but someone’s voice comes from over his shoulder.

 

“Not anymore.” Suho looks tired and uneasy as he walks in, but he is smiling nonetheless. “I just spoke to the management board, Baekhyun.”

“Suho…” Baekhyun turns, hesitant.

“You’re back on it.” the elder man says softly. “Jongin’s been put in charge for the rest of the proceedings, but at least you can help. Chanyeol’s problem is due to the legal recruitment team and my own negligence. You’re not at fault…It’s unfair that you should be the one paying the price.”

“I did mess up pretty badly as well.”

“Which is why you won’t be getting that partner position,” Suho smiles with a laugh, tilting his head. “Are you still willing to give this case another try, though?”

 

Baekhyun nods.

 

“You really shouldn’t ask.”

 

  

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> N/A: It was supposed to be a really dramatic chapter and all...but then I just couldn't do it right at all ._.  
> Thanks you loads for reading so far~ 2 chapters to go!


	13. 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uploading the last two chapters in one go. Thanks for reading!

**13.**

 

 

When Baekhyun was seven years old, he remembers, his grandmother had kindly let him know that every little boy needed a father figure to grow up properly. “It is a must”, she said, because a boy grows up by walking in his father’s shoes. A boy becomes a man by following his father’s footsteps. He needs a role model to be influenced by. He needs a good example.

But as he grew up, Baekhyun looked at his father. He looked at the countless stacks of empty bottles the patriarch left around the house, looked at the mess he had made of their family, looked at this broken alcoholic’s vitreous, cowardly eyes. And then he thought:

 _Sod this_.

Sod this; he would die before he could get a proper father figure of any kind. If he was to become a decent human being, he was going to have to do it by walking in his own shoes.

 

 

 

 

Baekhyun reminisces about this in the courtroom now, as the judge hands down the floor to the plaintiff’s counsel and Soojung starts to summarize their position. He sits behind Jongin and Yixing, legs crossed, reclined against Suho who has now taken Chanyeol’s place in the team and is taking notes on the proceedings. He tries to concentrate on the case, but somehow, it has become hard to care… Or rather, he does care. He cares too much. He doesn’t only care about the outcome of the case, he cares about everything and every detail and it pisses him off.

 

“We’ll get them this time. We have to.” he mumbles for Suho’s benefit, since Jongin and Yixing are a row in front of them and are both too preoccupied by their testimonies to listen.

The partner glances at him, folds a note that he hands to Jongin before looking back at him.

“You’re pumped,” he murmurs.

“Just nervous.”

“But also pumped.”

Baekhyun shrugs, tapping his foot against the red carpet. His eyes travel from the judge’s impassive face to the jury’s tired expressions.

“I’m trying to convince myself,” he mutters at last.  

“Of what?”

“Of the fact that Smith&Harolds won’t pull another leak on us,” Baekhyun slowly joins his hands together. “And that we can still – with a bit of luck – win.”

“You know it’s not really up to us anymore,” Suho whispers, turning around slightly to catch a glimpse of their client sitting on the tribunes behind them. “We’ve done everything we could already; Kyungsoo’s argument is either going to give us a break-through, or it won’t. But at this point in time, it’s much too late to stress about it.”

“I know.”

“I’m not saying this merely to make you feel better, Baek.” the partner stares calmly at him, “You know the client is still going to rip us apart if we lose this one.”

“Yes, I know that too.”

 

Suho watches him intently for a second, but soon returns to his papers, and Baekhyun sits back to clasp a weary hand against his cheek, staring at the judge’s podium ahead.

 

“With your Honour’s discretion,” Jongin speaks out loud, “I would like to recall the plaintiff’s witnesses to the stand for essential information that has been omitted during the initial testimony.”

Baekhyun lowers his voice and leans nearer to Suho’s ear: “If Kyungsoo’s argument _did_ get leaked twice, we need to have a come-back this time.”

“Easier said than done.” Suho smiles bitterly. “We only had two days to prepare, remember?”

“Alright. But-”

“-and we lost an employee when we were already short on hands… This isn’t going to be our best performance, I’m afraid.”

The associate blinks, slightly peeved.

“He wasn’t even much of a help, that employee.”

“Well,” Suho’s eyes flicker. “Wasn’t what we thought before, was it?”

 

Baekhyun pulls back, disgruntled and leans back into his chair as the room fades into blurred lines and smoky noise. ‘ _A role model, Baekhyun..._ ’ his grandmother’s voice soon chimes inside his mind, melodious and kind, ‘ _every boy needs to have a role model._ ’ He ruffles his hair angrily to get rid of her, but it is Sehun’s nasal voice which sneers at him this time, the secretary’s smug face invading his thoughts. ‘ _He was just calling for your help, you know._ ’

“Shut up.” Baekhyun says out loud.

“What?” Suho frowns at him.

“Nothing.” he bites his lips and narrows his eyes. “Did _you_ need a role model while you were growing up, Suho?”

“What the Hell are you talking about?”

“Nothing, just…ignore me.” the younger man sits back and shakes his head, slowly crossing his arms over his chest under the partner’s befuddled gaze. Suho stares at him for another moment before finally shrugging in defeat and scribbling something onto another post-it, that he passes on to Jongin in front of him. Baekhyun bites his nails.

 

“A role model…” he murmurs inaudibly.

 

It irks him. Somehow, it reminds him of Chanyeol’s desperate face when he had begged Baekhyun to understand him, to understand why…But how could Baekhyun possibly understand anything when the younger man had just acted like the biggest arsehole in the whole wide universe and made a blatant fool out of him? How could Chanyeol even expect him to just… _forgive_ him? It’s like getting ruthlessly stabbed in the back and then being asked to be chill about it. Would _anyone_ be chill about it? Just thinking about it made him furious.

 

“Do you need me?” he says glumly for Suho’s attention during the interval, while Jongin and Yixing are busy chatting amongst themselves. “Because if you don’t, I’m just popping out for a…”

“Smoke.”

“Huh? No.” Baekhyun blinks. “I quit. Remember? I just need to go for a drink.”

“Hmm, what if you miss the end of the interval?”

“Why would I miss the end of the interval?”

“Well, you never know.” Suho sighs flatly. “After last time, with Tao and the train in Shanghai…”

“ _Chanyeol_ was there, Chanyeol was _distracting_ me.”

Suho glances at him and studies briefly.

“Alright, five minutes.”

 

Baekhyun stands up and leaves the room, straightening his suit whilst shaking his head. Chanyeol. Chanyeol everywhere, every time he tries to forget. Chanyeol at the end of every sentence, every word, every turn of phrase. Chanyeol, Chanyeol, Chanyeol...

 

“All the fucking time...” he mutters under his breath, and heads straight for the lavatories.   

 

The bathroom is quiet when he enters it, and too brightly lit – giving him the vague start of a headache that he is not keen on having. He reaches out for the water fountain with urgency, but catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror, and gives his hair a little tweak instead. Stress really destroys him, he thinks as he repairs the damage and opens the tap. He looks dreadful. And the lights! Blinding, irritating, a pain. No wonder the institution runs out of money so often, they waste all their funds on electricity, he’s sure.

 

He barely notices it, but someone has come into the bathroom after him, someone very tall and very quiet, and when he finally catches the person’s reflection in the mirror in front of him, he has to pause for a moment, wordless in front of the absurdity of the situation, before finally dropping a bottomless sigh.

"You bastard," he groans under his breath, and lets his hand fall limply to his sides.

 

In front of the cubicles, behind him, Chanyeol looks vaguely guilty and miserable. Baekhyun turns around and faces him with narrowed eyes.

 

“You’ve got nerves,” he simply says.

And Chanyeol doesn't reply immediately. Calm, Baekhyun bites his bottom lip and props one hand over the edge of the sink. He closes the tap.

“We need to talk,” Chanyeol then says.

“Did you see me come out of the courtroom, or were you in there to start with?”

“I saw you coming out as I arrived in the hall. Baekhyun, I need to talk to you.”

“Great. And I don’t think there’s anything to talk about.” Baekhyun grins widely and crosses his arms, but Chanyeol doesn’t seem to be discouraged.

“I messed up,” the younger man drops.

“Good. Absolutely obvious and useless as a statement, but yes. Indeed, you did.”

“Baekhyun… I know you’re mad at me-”

“Don’t know what makes you think so-”

“-and I know you have every right to be, it’s…” he struggles. “It’s true that I did a really stupid, thoughtless thing, which compromised your whole team’s position and your own interests in this affair… I know I’ve acted selfishly and hurt your feelings as a result.”

“Hurt my feelings? Hmm! Funny. Not how I remember it.”

“I know I’ve been a complete bastard in this story, Baek.” Chanyeol raises his voice, throwing his arms up, before falling back to a murmur. “I have no excuse. I just want to say sorry.”

“You want to say sorry, oh, dear.” the other associate repeats, laughing dryly. “You want to – now, let me tell you a thing, Park Chanyeol…” he scoffs, terrible. “You – you, with your senseless irresponsibility and your utter stupidity, have caused a partner to lose credibility in the eyes of his superiors, a senior associate to lose his promotion, an associate to lose all the credit he should get for weeks of endless research, and a firm to lose its hard-earned, costly reputation in the span of a few weeks – you alone. You did all this. Do you realise this?”

Chanyeol’s eyes waver like he is about to fall apart.

“Baekhyun, I am really sorry.”

“And I’m not done.” Baekhyun steps forward, planting his finger against the younger man’s chest. “Because on top of everything, you had to screw with me _personally_. What did I do to you, hmm? What did I ever do to you that you had to make me feel like the biggest moron in this galaxy... Why? You made me feel like I knew everything there was to know about you, like I was your confidant, the closest person you ever had and the dearest person I could ever hope to meet – all this for like twenty seconds, and then what?” he smacks his two hands together. “ _Whack_. You come right back in, hit me with a bus, then run off into the horizon without saying another word. And you think you can get away with all this just by saying sorry?”

“That was a bit of an exaggeration.”

“Don’t make me kill you, Park Chanyeol, because I will-”

“Look, I know that I’ve been doing the wrong thing, Baek.” Chanyeol stammers. “Believe me, I truly do.”

“Then why did you have to make me think that you…” Baekhyun winces, clenches his fist, pulls himself back together. “Why,” he repeats in a whisper, “did you have to make me believe that you loved me?”

“Because I do love you,” Chanyeol exclaims and Baekhyun snorts.

“Okay, seriously, I think you can cut down on the lying now.”

“No.” Chanyeol shouts. “No, this isn’t a lie. This has never been a lie. Baekhyun, when I wanted you to know about me, it was all true, and when I said I’d always looked up to you and admired you, that was all true too… You do know me better than anyone else, Baek, I…I never wanted you to believe the contrary.”

 

Baekhyun raises vaguely nauseated eyes at him.

 

“Listen, Chanyeol, I really have had too much of your bullshit already.”

“It’s true,” the younger man insists. “Please believe me, Baek…after I told Soojung about Kyungsoo’s arguments…after I leaked everything to her, I regretted it. I really regretted it and I wanted to stop, but I just got so scared. I wasn’t scared of making Lighthouse Pinson fail, I wasn’t even scared of getting fired – I was just so scared of you. Just you. Because I realised back then what this had made me and what I had done to you, and I knew that I would never deserve you again but I…I just didn’t know what to do to stop losing you.”

“You should have stopped _before_ leaking the information,” Baekhyun moans into his two hands, “not _after_ , you moron!”

“I know,” Chanyeol laughs sadly, shaking his head, “But I’m really not as strong as you, I told you already. I didn’t know how to. I just didn’t know _how_ and I still don’t know. Even now. I still don’t.”

 

Baekhyun stares at him incredulously.

“You still what?”

“I still don’t know how to…say no to him.” Chanyeol winces. “Despite everything he’s done to me he’s…he’s the man I respect the most since my most tender childhood and I owe him everything that I know.”

“You think he’s your role model,” Baekhyun snorts without humour, “Your father. You think you should be going down the same route as him because he’s your model, but you know what? Sometimes, people don’t have role models. Sometimes, little boys shouldn’t follow their father’s footsteps unquestioningly!”

“Everyone has a role model at some point. We all get influenced…”

“Then couldn’t anyone else do the job?” the elder man bursts out, dumbstruck. “Why did it have to be your father? You could have chosen anyone who was worth any ounce of your respect and learned from them...It didn’t have to be a man who makes you do disgusting things like this, it didn’t have to be someone who doesn’t even respect you as an independent human being!”

Chanyeol dithers, looking dazed.

“Yes.” he murmurs. “You’re right.”

“You didn’t have to handcuff yourself to the idea of a father figure, Chanyeol. Why did you never understand that?” Baekhyun grits his teeth. “You are yourself, not your dad. Why did you even try to be like him…?”

“I just never had enough self-esteem, I suppose. Never had enough courage, God, Baekhyun. I’m not like you. I’m not perfect, you know.”

“I’m not perfect either!” he yells. “ _Nobody’s_ perfect; I can’t even ride a fucking elevator without feeling like I’m about to puke!”

 

A young clerk opens the door of the lavatories and Baekhyun screams out:

“Get out we’re busy!”

The door shuts less than a second later. The elder associate paces across the room, ruffling his hair furiously, as Chanyeol sighs with a hand over his eyes. Baekhyun comes back to him with gritted teeth and burning eyes, wheezing:

“You didn’t have to chain yourself to him like a puppy, Chanyeol. You’re a fully grown adult with a career, for Christ’s sake…!”

“Yeah, well,” Chanyeol laughs without joy. “Got fired from Lighthouse Pinson too, now. With two redundancies on my CV, even if one was faked, my career development isn’t looking so bright, I think.”

 

Baekhyun glances at him and makes a rictus.

“You can…I don’t know… make your father tweak it for you, or something. Go back to Smith&Harolds.”

“But that’s not the right thing to do,” the younger man sighs and smiles. “Right?  If I want to detach myself from him.”

“No.” Baekhyun grumbles. “No, it’s not.”

“So, back to square one.” Chanyeol chuckles bitterly, sinking against the wall. “I betrayed a whole team of lawyers who were ready to accept me as their friend, lost my job, and lost…you.” he smiles. “Messed up pretty badly, didn’t I.”

“So far, so obvious.” Baekhyun scoffs, though much of his resolve has already dissipated by now, and he can’t find the strength to be angry. “If you’re expecting pity from me Chanyeol, this is asking too much of me. I’m already screwed because of a leak that you imposed on us, and two days ago, we discovered that there was a second line of argument which could have completely saved us from the get-go, and which didn’t, because _you_ withheld it from us... Heaven knows whether you leaked that to the plaintiff’s side as well, but…”

“I didn’t.” Chanyeol smiles sorely. “I didn’t tell them about that one. Couldn’t bring myself to do it.”

 

Stopping near the door, Baekhyun stares at him and touches his lower lip. Hesitation takes him.

 

“You…” he puckers his lips, “didn’t…?”

“No.”

“So, you mean…” Baekhyun pauses, thinks, narrows his eyes. “that Smith&Harolds don’t know about the breach in contract.”

“Unless they found out about it themselves,” Chanyeol responds, “which I doubt they did, because I assured them that your main line of defence would be on causation and contributory negligence. They relied purely on the case-note I provided them, and think that the truth is limited to everything I’ve told them.”

“Ah.”

 

Baekhyun watches as Chanyeol smirks, strikingly handsome, but devoid of any contentment.

“The weakness of having a spy implanted in the adversary’s camp,” the younger man says, “You rely on him too much.”

“So basically,” Baekhyun breathes in. “Jongin is going to get the witnesses to admit that there was an assurance – from the plaintiffs – that they were in compliance with the contract they made with Hailong’s company…”

“Yes, and once they admit that, it will become clear to the court that it is the plaintiffs who have, in fact, been the negligent ones, possibly even been fraudulent about the unlawful nature of their products…”

“…therefore, they are not only fully liable for their own losses…”

“…but are also liable to pay any of their own clients – interested third parties – who will refuse to accept deliverance of any medical products containing an unlawful component in it...”

“…meanwhile, Hailong is entitled to terminate their contract with the plaintiffs for a breach of condition.” Baekhyun murmurs.  “Brilliant…”

 

“Except for one thing,” Chanyeol replies calmly, with a sad smile. “As soon as Smith&Harolds realizes that you are going to argue down this line, they’ll call for a dismissal of the argument. Misdirection. Improper procedures. They’ll try to say that the argument is too far-fetched to be a mere redirection of the witnesses, and that it has nothing to do with the current position of your client – therefore, has to be dismissed.”

 

Baekhyun observes him carefully, frowning a little. The tail of a laugh escapes him.

“What?” Chanyeol blinks.

“You’re actually a pretty decent lawyer, aren’t you? I tend to forget that.”

“Well, I…” the younger man blushes slightly, looking away despondently. “I try my best to impress.”

“Yes, you do. Sometimes,” Baekhyun laughs, squatting down next to him. “But it doesn’t mean that you’re not actually good… So what do we do, now, if we want to stop Smith&Harolds from shutting us up, hmm? Is there any way to silence them before they do that?”

Chanyeol looks deep into his eyes.

“Well, it’s not really an argument in itself.”

“But there is a way to shut them up, isn’t there? And you know it. Word by word.” Baekhyun smiles meaningfully.

“Don’t you?”

The elder man shrugs. “I wouldn’t be asking otherwise.”

 

Chanyeol stares at him, wonder in his eyes, and Baekhyun soon grabs onto his hand, violently pulling him up to his feet and dragging him out of the room.

“Come with me,” he says, final. “You’ve got an apology to make.”

 

 

*

 

 

“Pass this note onto Yixing and ask him to say this word by word.” Baekhyun says as he meets Suho in the corridor, right in front of the courtroom.

“Where were you all this time, you almost missed the session’s start by one…”

“ _Word by word_.” Baekhyun pushes the note into Suho’s hands. “Now. Come on, let’s get in there and sit down.”

“What is this?” Suho looks down at the note. “This isn’t your handwriting, is it? Who wrote this?”

“I did. Problem?”

“That’s not bullet points, it’s a whole speech.” the partner frowns.

“Which is why I said ‘word by word’.”

 

Jongin and Yixing take their seats in front of them, giving them a nod of acknowledgment. The witness they have recalled is already standing up and waiting for the judge’s instructions. Suho glances at the note again and squints at Baekhyun.

 

“Do you know what you’re doing, Baek?”

Baekhyun clears his throat.

“We’ll see that in a moment.”  

 

Suho glowers a bit, but taps Yixing on the shoulder and hands in the note anyway, telling him to read it out at the right moment. Baekhyun reclines in his seat and looks up at the tribunes, where a new observer has now taken his seat. Behind the client representatives and the reporters, Chanyeol doesn’t stand out much, with his fairly casual clothing and his demure countenance. His ears and height do make him quite visible, though; unfortunate features of his appearance that Baekhyun had always found rather ridiculous. They exchange a glance, no smiles. Soon Baekhyun returns to the case at hand as the judge begins to speak.

 

“Who wrote that note, seriously? Baek,” Suho whispers in his ear again after what seems like an eternity. “I know your handwriting, it isn’t as neat as that.”

“Alright, I asked for help during the interval.” Baekhyun smiles. “Asked someone who’s better than me at finding arguments…someone who’s beaten me in a case before. Somebody who owes me…a debt.”

The partner looks at him with suspicious eyes.

“Someone who owes you a debt. Really. Baek, I’m serious. This isn’t the right time to…”

“Hush.”

“Your Honour,” Jongin suddenly declares, his hands on the table. “For the reasons I have given you, it is submitted that the real negligence in the present case lies on the side of the plaintiffs, not the defendants. As the witness have just testified, the defendant company had been given the assurance that the cargos were in compliance with both domestic and international law. They had relied on that assurance, and carried out the contract as planned. However, as I have just exposed to you, the components in those pharmaceutical products were clearly unlawful at the time of the accident. Therefore, your Honour, I submit the following on behalf of the defendants, that a breach of contract must be found and that Hailong must be discharged of all liabilities.”

Baekhyun bites his lips. “Now, Smith&Harolds…”

“Point of order,” Taemin speaks up, calm, cold and detached. “The argument at hand is far too remote to be accepted in a redirection of the witnesses. I request that this point be dismissed as a misdirection of witnesses.”

Baekhyun smiles. “And now, Yixing.”

“We have an objection to make,” the Chinese barrister clears his throat, carefully placing the note in front of him and keeping an eye on it as he speaks. “There is no issue of remoteness at hand. Our initial defence was that it was the component of the products itself which has caused the plaintiff’s loss, and our current defence is very much the same. It is this precise component which is the cause of the cargo’s destruction, and it is also this precise component which we are now revealing to be unlawful according to Chinese and Taiwanese law. This component is what we have focused on all along, and what we should continue to focus on.” He pauses. “Here is the bottom line: The pharmaceutical products on Hailong’s ships were illegal at the time they were being loaded onto the vessel. The plaintiffs were in breach of their contract with the defendant, and we are entitled to rescind from it.”

“Additionally, I must add…” Baekhyun murmurs.

“Additionally, I must add,” Yixing continues, loud and emphasizing each word as he faces Smith&Harolds’s team directly. “that it would be very ill-advised for the plaintiffs to ignore this argument now, as the facts are clear, and the unlawfulness of the plaintiffs’ products cannot be denied. If they do decide to disregard this piece of information now, it is with their future clients that they will have altercations, once and if the truth is made available to the public.”

“Is he blackmailing them in front of a judge?” Suho gapes, not believing his eyes.

Baekhyun laughs silently, folding his arms.  

“For the reasons given,” Yixing breathes shakily, “I would rebut the claimant counsel’s objection, and would press the court to consider this newfound fact with all its evidence, giving it the weight that it deserves. Thank you.”

 

 

 

Suho looks flabbergasted when Yixing floppily sits down again and Jongin stands up to make their closing remarks. Smith&Harolds make theirs too, but Baekhyun can already see the change in their expressions, the veil of distrust and betrayal on their faces which tells too much about their discomfort. Only Kris looks mildly amused, watching Yixing with a hint of a smile.

 

Baekhyun breathes in sharply when the judge starts to speak, looking grim.

 

“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, it is now that you have to deliberate on the outcome of this case. The situation at hand is a bit unusual. However, one must strike a balance between the position of the law and one’s intuitive position.” he clears his throat. “The facts, to me, are clear. Although it is undeniable that it was the _defendant’s_ negligence which has caused the accident, it is also undeniable that it was by the _plaintiff’s_ negligence that the cargos were loaded at all, and that argument is, in my opinion, not remote at all.”

 

He looks up through his glasses and stares at the jury.

 

“In the present circumstances, therefore, I would recommend a finding in favour of the defendants.”

 

Baekhyun lets out the breath he was holding, closing his eyes and covering his mouth with the back of his hand. When the lights in front of his eyelids disappear and he opens his eyes again, he can see Yixing and Jongin’s twin expressions of sheer surprise; Suho’s glimmering eyes, full of disbelief and exaltation…

 

He slowly turns around in his seat, and gives Chanyeol a little glance.

 

The younger man is smiling timidly at him now, legs crossed. He nods. Baekhyun grins back.


	14. 14 - end

**14.**

Baekhyun walks out of that courtroom with an even expression, leaving the rest of his team to see the tall young man standing by the hallway’s statue. He stops right in front of him, greeting him once with a nod.

 

“So,” he starts, putting his hands into his pockets. “Thanks for the help.”

 

Chanyeol smiles, but looks down immediately after, waning.

 

“It was nothing,” he says.

“No, I mean it.” the elder man asserts, staring at Chanyeol’s face. “Without that, I don’t think we would have come up with a reply in time. My mind wasn’t quite there, Suho was distracted, Jongin and Yixing might not have reacted fast enough, your help was…” Baekhyun nods, “very useful.”

“It was the least I could do, after…you know.”

 

Baekhyun smiles thinly, clearing his throat soon after.

“It’s going to take some time, you know,” he declares eventually, “forgiving you.”

Chanyeol raises hesitant eyes at him.

“It’s not going to be easy.” Baekhyun continues. “And there is going to be a while before I can completely forget what you did. You’ve destroyed a lot of trust, a lot of convictions that have taken a long time to form, so building all of that back up is going to be…”

“I know.” Chanyeol says gently. “Don’t worry, I know.”

“It’s not what I want to do.” Baekhyun twitches, staring straight into the younger man’s eyes, “but it’ll take me some time.”

“I understand.”

 

The elder lawyer nods, gazing into the distance as everybody comes out of the courtroom and stop to exchange a few words amongst themselves. He looks back at Chanyeol uncertainly, tapping his foot.

 

“So what are you going to do?”

“Tell my father that I don’t want to work in Smith&Harolds anymore; otherwise, he’s going to make me go back to his side…” the younger man smiles bitterly. “That’s the best thing I can do right now, I think. Detach myself from him.”

“Yeah, but after that.” Baekhyun pauses. Frowns sceptically. “Lighthouse Pinson’s not going to take you back, you know… So where are you going?”

“Oh, well.” Chanyeol chuckles, pulling out a pack of cigarettes, “I wasn’t counting on being forgiven to start with. I’ll figure something out, see what I can do. Find a little firm, somewhere…Start from the bottom again. I think it’ll do me some good, to find my way up by myself.”

 

He pauses, musing as he places one cigarette between his lips and shows Baekhyun the pack.

“Want one?”

“No. I don’t smoke, anymore.” the elder man shakes his head. “Quit a long time ago.”

“Alright.”

“I didn’t think you smoked either.”

 

Chanyeol smiles a bit, sadly staring at the elder man, then taking the cigarette in his hand and giving a little laugh.

“Well, I…” he shrugs. “I tried _very_ hard to impress.”

“Yes, you did.” Baekhyun smiles steadily.

He puts his hands behind his back, peaceful, and Chanyeol gives him a silent look, observing him quietly with his lighter still in hand. Slowly, the younger man drops the cigarette and offers him another smile.

“I’m glad you guys won the case, Baekhyun.”

“Yes, thank you, I’m glad too.” the elder man laughs calmly. “After all this drama, you know. Was about time we got a rest.”

“I don’t expect you to forgive me, Baek.” Chanyeol explains. “I hope you know that.”

 

Baekhyun stares at him wordlessly.

 

“That’s up for me to decide, isn’t it?” he replies after a while. “But as I said, it’ll take a while.”

“Yes.”

“Until then, we might not see each other much.”

“No.”

“And you’ll have to find yourself a job first, so I assume you’ll be quite…busy.”

“Well, about that…”

“You might want to try out something new.” Baekhyun says with the start of a very restrained smile. “Something like…opening a flower shop on the side of the beach.”

 

For a second, Chanyeol stares at him without a word, staggered, then suddenly, a chortle escapes him and they both start to laugh out loud, unreserved, shoulders shaking in the chilling room.

 

“Not really the best vocation for me, I think.”

“No, I should hope not.”

“I’ll do my best to become a better man, Baek,” Chanyeol murmurs in a more serious tone, when Baekhyun finally recovers his cool. “I mean this, really.”

“Please…” the elder man scorns, rolling his eyes. “We’ve all heard that one before.”

“Yes, but this one is a promise.”

“Isn’t our first one.”

“One I am determined to hold at all costs.” Chanyeol maintains, his eyes glowing under the light which shines through the tall glass windows.

 

Baekhyun looks up at him and smiles a little melancholically.

 

“Yeah, well.” he huffs. “We’ll see about that.”

Chanyeol takes his hand, and plants a soft kiss on the back of it. For a minute, Baekhyun waits eagerly, half-expecting the younger man to lean in closer and to kiss him on the lips, this time, to kiss him goodbye. But Chanyeol doesn’t. And he can only imagine the soft warmth of Chanyeol’s mouth on his own, the caress of his hand on his cheek, the abandon of thrilling passion. It is a shame that they have lost their intimacy before even gaining it, he thinks. But maybe it is better that Chanyeol doesn’t kiss him now, after all, because otherwise, he would have realised just how much he really misses the younger man’s touch on his skin.

 

“Until then?” Chanyeol says after a while, still smiling.

 

Baekhyun exhales, nodding distractedly.

 

“Yeah.” he breathes. “I'll see you then.”

 

*

*

*

 

The park is quiet today. It is a windy day.

 

“For three years, I thought you hated me.”

 

Yixing’s voice is muffled in the cold, hard breeze. It is uncertain and almost frail, as he and Kris sit side by side on the park bench.

 

“I thought you wouldn’t want to forgive me,” he says, “I thought you were just pretending to be cordial with me but that you despised me on the inside.”

“You said you wanted time.”

“I know,” Yixing stutters and pauses, looking at his knees. “I didn’t know what else to tell you. I didn’t know what to say to let you know just how sorry I was. I got irrationally intimidated by you and I got unreasonably scared. So much that all I wanted to do was to run away.”

"Yes, I know."

"It was stupid of me. And I wish I'd talked to you before, but I...I don't know why I got so frightened."

“I’m sorry, Yixing.”

“I’m the one who’s sorry, I’m the one who-” the barrister stops, frantic, when he catches the small smile on the corner of Kris’s lips.

“Please don’t leave me ever again.” the elder man says. “Okay?”

 

Yixing frowns, looking down again as the other man leans in and takes him into his arms. He exhales and snuggles into Kris’s neck, eyes shut, unable to say a word.

 

“I think we’ve both ran away far too much already,” Kris hums into his shoulder, and the barrister lets out a broken laugh, his eyes prickling him a bit.

“I’m sorry, Yifan…”

“I’m sorry too.”

“No, but I’m really sorry for what I...”

“Yixing, hush. It’s all in the past.”

The barrister scowls, and Kris pulls back, holding his chin up as he gazes into his eyes. A smile lightens his face.

 

“I love you,” he says and leans in, capturing the younger man’s lips.

 

Yixing whimpers through his mouth and exhales shakily when they break the kiss.

 

“I love you too,” he whispers, and lets Kris hug him again.

 

 

*

*

*

 

_Six months later:_

 

“Alright, guys, we have ten minutes to make it to the arbitration centre; ten minutes – that’s not a lot, so come on, move, move, _move_!”

 

Baekhyun picks up his keys and drags his coat down from the hanger, throwing it over his shoulder before heading out of his room, bumping into Minseok in the process.

 

“Sorry,” he smiles.

“No problem,” Minseok chuckles, and heads the other way. Suho is still looking impatiently at his watch while the department buzzes.

“Come on, boys, I know it’s not a big case but we don’t have all day!”

“Is Jongin coming?”

“Huh?” Suho looks at him and shakes his head. “No, he’s got his own thing going on. Filing work, would you believe it?”

“Has to happen.”

“It’s just Jongdae, Yixing, you and me.”

“I’m coming in five seconds!” Jongdae’s blaring voice comes from the other side of the wall.

“Please do hurry,” Suho sings back, glancing at his phone.

 

Behind Baekhyun, at the secretaries desk, Luhan is busy typing something up onto his computer. The elder man pauses in his work when he sees Jongin come back from the coffee machine, and raises attentive eyes at him.

“Here,” the barrister says to him, smiling as he hands him one mug. “Got one for you.”

“Thanks. You shouldn’t have.” Luhan places it next to the line of coffees already on his desk and beams, making the younger man melt.

“It’s my pleasure,” Jongin laughs, scratching his head, and Luhan continues to look at him, still smiling brightly.

 

“Listen, Jongin.” the secretary says at last, after a while. “Since we’re talking about coffee, what would you say if we grabbed something together tomorrow afternoon? It’s a Saturday.”

“Office outing?” the barrister drinks a sip from his own cup, frowning a bit.

“No, not really. Just something on the side.”

“Alright.” the younger man licks his lips, nodding. “Is Sehun joining us? What time are we meeting?”

 

Luhan opens his mouth and clasps his hands together.

“No, Jongin, I was thinking more in line of…you know, you and me together.”

 

Jongin stares at him for an age, the mug still in front of his lips.

 

“Jongin?” Luhan smiles after a while. “Hello…?”

“You mean…” Jongin inhales sharply, then stagnates. “Just…us two.”

“Yes.”

“Like, just…you, and… _me_?”

“Yes, Jongin.” Luhan laughs openly now. “Why, does that bother you? Would you rather have Sehun come along-”

“No. No! Just the two of us is perfect, really!”

 

“How pleasant,” Suho says with a sigh, as he rearranges the cufflink on his right arm and smiles a Baekhyun. “Everyone getting together, celebrating love...”

“Well.” Baekhyun rolls his eyes. “It _is_ Valentine’s day pretty soon.”

“Why, yes, it is.”

“So what about you, mum? Anyone… interesting?”

Suho snorts, heaving another sigh: “I’m married to my work, Baek. Can barely take care of myself; a lover is out of the question, I’m afraid. You?”

“Oh…” Baekhyun chuckles whilst shaking his head. “It’s all very ambiguous, really.”

 

Suho does not make any comment immediately and instead, lets his eyes travel across Baekhyun’s face, his attire, his countenance. He eventually starts to smile in amusement.

 

“ _You’re_ nicely dressed.”

“I’m always nicely dressed.”

“Are you seeing him tonight, then?” Suho grins. “Little date on a Friday night.”

“Well.” Baekhyun tilts his head, makes a rictus. “Had to at some point. He’s got a minor promotion at his new job. I’m just… congratulating him.”

“New job, I see.” Suho nods knowingly, though feinting ignorance. “What kind of job is that?”

“Marketing.” Baekhyun mocks. “He’s, um, pretty good a convincing people. And swindling them, if you see what I'm talking about.”

“Oh, really.”

“Yeah, he’s really got a thing for the ‘make or break’ kind of situations.”   

 

Baekhyun notices Sehun coming in from the other side of the department and gives him a nod, accompanied by a small smile and a wink. Sehun just frowns at him, briefly side-eyes him like he is a moron, and then, shakes his head before going back to his desk.  

 

“Actually,” Baekhyun looks at Suho again. “I think we both have a thing for that, so…you know. New start tonight... Maybe.”

“Hmm, I wish you all the best this time…” the partner smiles elusively, then glances once more at his watch. “But anyhow, that’s enough with love stories for now. We really don’t have the time. Back to work, boys! Jongdae, where are you?”

 

 

He waits a little as the partner walks off, hounding Jongdae and asking everyone to go back to their offices, and get on with their work. “Enough coffees already. It’s Friday afternoon!” Yixing rushes past him, saying sorry for his lateness as he does, and almost trips on his own foot. Baekhyun watches him fly past and smiles before he can help himself. He has a strange feeling fluttering down his stomach, an odd feeling of liberation he had not felt in a long time, now.

 

“Baekhyun, are you coming?!” Suho yells.

“Yes, mum, right away!” Baekhyun shouts back.

 

He pulls out his phone pensively, typing in one short message, “ _I’ll see you tonight?_ ” which he stares at briefly before finally pressing ‘Send’ with a pondering smile on his lips. He then puts on his coat, buttoning it all the way to the top, and takes a deep, long breath as he pushes the great double doors of the department open and walks outside.

His phone beeps a few minutes later.

_“See you tonight, Baek,”_ it says without any flourish. But Baekhyun doesn’t read it until much later that night.

When your client needs you, nothing else in the world fucking matters.

 

 

 

-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> N/A: Finally done with this story…!  
> Would have liked to do a more fluffy ending for Baekyeol, but… I don't know, it seemed a little odd for them to be all lovey-dovey again so soon after all that mess. So this ending is more of a new start, where they can slowly rebuild their relationship from scratch, while some things change and some things remain the same. woohoo
> 
> I'm glad this fic's finally over to be honest haha Again, thank you loads for reading until the end. I'm aware that it was a very badly planned and terribly cliché fic, so really, thank you for finishing to read it ^^  
> Hope you enjoyed most of it, and until next time!


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